Tunisian presidential candidate Ayachi Zemal’s campaign and defence team have vowed to continue campaigning despite a one-year and eight-month prison sentence handed down last night, according to German news agency DPA.

His lawyer and head of his defence team, Abdessatar Messaoudi, told the agency that the verdict will not affect his campaign and that Zemal will continue in the presidential race and will not withdraw.

Ayachi Zemal, leader of the Azmoun movement and businessman, is being tried in five cases in five provinces on suspicion of falsifying voter recommendations. He was sentenced yesterday evening by the Jendouba court in western Tunisia. He will appear today in four more sessions in the courts of the capital, Manouba and Siliana.