A court in Tunisia has sentenced ten environmental campaigners over 2020 protests in Gabes, on the country's southern coast, against pollution from a state-owned phosphate plant, Africanews reports.
According to defence lawyer Hamida Chaieb, two of the activists were given one-year prison terms and the other eight received six-month suspended sentences. The case was brought by the plant itself, which accused the protesters of disrupting its operations.
The activists said they had believed the case was dropped after their release, but later learned they had been convicted in absentia in 2023, which led to a retrial. Residents link the plant to health problems, and researchers have reported radioactive substances in some of its waste. A court refused to suspend its operations in February, and the government plans to raise phosphate output more than fourfold by 2030.
Source: Africanews
