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TUNIS, Oct 27, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - A Tunisian court began hearing Monday the appeal of some 40 Tunisian political figures sentenced to up to 74 years in prison for plotting against the state, in the absence of the defendants, lawyers told AFP.

Defenders decried "violations of judicial procedure" after their clients were not brought before the judge, and demanded their release, lawyer Faouzi Jaballah said.

Soon after the hearing began, the judge deferred the trial to November 17, defence lawyer Karim Marzouki said.

The ruling in April against the defendants including critics of President Kais Saied was criticised by rights groups.

Among those sentenced were well-known opposition figures, lawyers and business people.

Some had already spent over two years in prison, while others were in exile or still free.

They were convicted of "conspiracy against state security" and "belonging to a terrorist group" following only three hearings and without the court hearing defence arguments.

The defendants include Issam Chebbi and Jawhar Ben Mbarek of the opposition National Salvation Front coalition, as well as feminist activist Bochra Belhaj Hmida.

The appeal trial was announced on Friday, and Ben Mbarek's sister, lawyer Dalila Msaddek, said the short notice was intended to prevent the hearing from "causing a stir".

"They are neither terrorists nor criminals," Msaddek said about the defendants.

Since Saied launched a power grab in the summer of 2021 and assumed total control, rights advocates and opposition figures have decried a rollback of freedoms in the North African country where the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings began.

The United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk in April said the mass trial was "marred by violations of fair trial and due process rights", adding it raised "serious concerns about political motivations".

France, Germany among other Western countries also condemned the trial.

But Saied dismissed the "comments and statements by foreign parties" as "blatant interference in Tunisia's internal affairs".

In July, another trial of nearly two dozen opposition figures also accused of plotting against the state handed hefty sentences to defendants including Rached Ghannouchi, leader of the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party.

The 84-year-old opposition figure and former parliament speaker had already been jailed in another case.

Further critics of Saied are also currently being prosecuted or behind bars under a presidential decree-law prohibiting "spreading false news".