The Tunisian Court of Appeal has ordered the execution of the son of businessman Zohir Abdel Le Kef

The Criminal Chamber of the Tunisian Court of Appeal today convicted the eldest son of businessman Zahir Abdul Le Kef and sentenced him to death by hanging. The appellate decision overturned a previous preliminary ruling that the case had not been heard and the prosecution had been dismissed after a judicial process that began in 2021.

The events of the case date back to one day in the month of Ramadan in 2021 before breakfast when units of the National Guard in the Western Aqaba of the capital received a notification that the body of a businessman was found inside one of his apartments. Field inspections showed signs of violence and machine-gun assault on separate areas of the victim's body.

A judge of the Tunisian Primary Court had ordered after the parties had been summoned to deposit the eldest son in prison and charged him with manslaughter with the prior intent of the deceased father. The file was subsequently transferred to the Criminal Chamber of the Tunisian Primary Court for consideration of the actions attributed to him after the initial investigations were completed.

Throughout the trial, the defendant has maintained his denial of the charges against him for the murder of his father and insisted that he was the one who reported the body to the security authorities as soon as it was found in the house. Following the negotiations, the Primary Criminal Chamber decided to issue a ruling not to hear the case in his right for the Public Prosecutor to appeal the ruling.

Rehearsals before the Court of Appeals led to a violation of the preliminary sentence after examining the recorded facts to determine the circuit's justification for the son's conviction and issuing the maximum legal penalties of hanging. These judgments put an end to the litigation process that has seen a conflict between the preliminary and appeal proceedings.