TUNIS: A Tunisian court has freed a group of humanitarian workers after handing them suspended sentences for facilitating the “illegal entry and residence” of migrants, a support committee said on Tuesday.
Sherifa Riahi, the former director of the French NGO Terre d’Asile, and several members of her staff had already spent more than 20 months in jail by the time of their final hearing on Monday.
Hours after the hearing, Riahi’s support committee posted a video of her leaving prison overnight, announcing her colleagues had also been freed.
Mahmoud Daoud Yaacoub, a member of Riahi’s defense team, told AFP that the court had handed down a two-year suspended sentence to the defendants who were in pre-trial detention.
“Tomorrow we will learn the rest of the judgment regarding the defendants who are out on bail,” he said.
