Wadie Jary, the former president of the Tunisian Football Federation (FTF), has been sentenced to four years in prison on corruption charges.
A spokesperson for the country’s sports ministry told the AFP news agency that the conviction related to an “unlawful contract between the FTF and a technical director” during Jary’s time in office.
The 52-year-old’s lawyers say he will appeal against the verdict.
Jary was first elected head of the FTF in 2012 and faced multiple allegations of impropriety during his reign, including match-fixing, financial misconduct and money laundering, all of which he denied.
Local media also reported on disputes between Jary and the sports ministry, while in January 2021 he received a four-year ban from the Tunisian National Olympic Committee after it claimed he had “breached national and international Olympic ethics codes”.
Despite that ban, Jary was elected to the Confederation of African Football’s (Caf) executive committee just two months later.
He remained on the the committee while awaiting trial, with Caf general secretary Veron Mosengo-Omba telling the BBC last year that the organisation was “not protecting crooks” and would make a decision on Jary once a verdict was delivered by the Tunisian legal system.
After the charges against him emerged, Jary was taken into custody in October 2023.
