A Tunisian court has handed down prison sentences of 13 to 66 years to politicians, businessmen and lawyers in a mass trial that opponents say is fabricated and a symbol of president Kais Saied’s authoritarian rule.

Businessman Kamel Ltaif received the longest sentence of 66 years on Saturday, while opposition politician Khayam Turki was given a 48-year jail term, a lawyer for the defendants said.

The court also sentenced prominent opposition figures, including Ghazi Chaouachi, Issam Chebbi, Jawahar Ben Mbarek and Ridha Belhaj, to 18 years in prison. They have been in custody since 2023.

Forty people were being prosecuted in the trial that started in March. More than 20 have fled abroad since being charged.

Saied secured a second five-year term in 2024 with 90.7% of the vote after coming to power in 2019. Rights groups say he has had full control over the judiciary since he dissolved parliament in 2021 and began ruling by decree. He dissolved the independent supreme judicial council and sacked dozens of judges in 2022.

“We are not surprised by these unjust and vengeful verdicts that seek to silence the voices of these opposition figures,” Chaouachi’s son Youssef said

“I have never witnessed a trial like this. It’s a farce, the rulings are ready, and what is happening is scandalous and shameful,” said defence lawyer Ahmed Souab on Friday before the ruling was handed down.

Authorities say the defendants, who also include former officials and the former head of intelligence Kamel Guizani, tried to destabilise the country and overthrow Saied.

“The authorities want to criminalise the opposition,” said the leader of the main National Salvation Front opposition coalition, Nejib Chebbi, on Friday. Chebbi was also among the defendants.

Saied said in 2023 the politicians were “traitors and terrorists” and that judges who would acquit them were their accomplices.

The opposition leaders involved in the case accuse Saied of staging a coup in 2021 and say the case is fabricated to stifle the opposition and establish a one-man, repressive rule.

They say they were preparing an initiative aimed at uniting the fragmented opposition to face the democratic setback in the cradle of the Arab spring uprisings.

Most of the leaders of political parties in Tunisia are in prison, including Abir Moussi, the leader of the Free Constitutional party, and Rached Ghannouchi, the head of Ennahda – two of Saied’s most prominent opponents.