Tunisia's former environment minister jailed for three years

In Tunisia, a former environment minister has been sentenced for his role in an illegal import of household waste from Italy.

Former minister Mustapha Aroui was dismissed and arrested in December 2020 along with other officials.

The court's verdict was announced late on Tuesday and reported in the local Tunisian press on Wednesday.

The former minister, along with three other defendants, was sentenced to three years in prison.

The case dates back to July 2020 when the household waste, the import of which is prohibited by law, was brought to Tunisia in 280 containers by a Tunisian company that falsely claimed it was plastic waste for recycling.

The case provoked protests from the population and local NGOs in Tunisia, who had expressed their refusal to allow their country to become Italy's "dustbin".