A Tunisian court on Friday sentenced opposition figure Olfa Hamdi to four years in prison after convicting her on charges of "plotting" and "inciting" members of the military to disobey orders, authorities said.
Hamdi, who holds both Tunisian and US nationality, was prosecuted in connection with social media posts that prosecutors said amounted to calls for military insubordination. The court found her guilty of the charges and imposed a four-year custodial sentence.
Hamdi is known as an opposition politician in Tunisia; her conviction was linked explicitly to material she posted online, according to the court ruling. The case highlights the growing role of social media in political disputes and the use of criminal charges by state authorities in response to online speech.
The ruling is likely to draw attention both domestically and internationally because of Hamdi's dual nationality and political profile. Details of the specific posts cited at the trial and the full legal reasoning behind the verdict were not detailed in the available report.