Tunis: The public prosecutor’s office at the Tunis Court of Appeal had lodged an appeal in cassation against the judgement sentencing the 12 defendants in the death by drowning of Club Africain fan Omar Laabidi to a one-year suspended prison sentence, spokesman for the Tunis Court of Apeal Habib Torkhani told TAP on Monday.

The correctional division of the Court of Appeal had delivered its verdict in the case last Friday, sentencing those involved to a one-year suspended prison sentence, he added.

Lawyer of the family of Omar Laabidi Toumi Ben Farhat said in a post that the twelve defendants in the case had had their sentences reduced from two years’ imprisonment to one year’s suspended imprisonment at the hearing on July 12.

The young Club Africain fan drowned on March 31, 2018 in Oued Meliane, near the Radès stadium, as he and other fans were trying to flee the police after attending a match between his team and CO Médenine.

Following the death of the young fan, fourteen members of the law enforcers app
eared on bail before the criminal division of the Ben Arous Court of First Instance.

On November 3, 2022, the court sentenced 12 of them to two years’ imprisonment and dismissed two others.

The family of the deceased young man decided to appeal.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse