Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Ennahda leader arrested as Tunisia cracks down on opposition

Noureddine Bhiri was taken into custody in the capital, Tunis, on suspicion of being part of a “conspiracy against the country’s security” .
The crackdown — targeting Tunisian opposition figures, the president’s critics and opponents in the media, judiciary and economic community — comes after a disastrous parliamentary election last month in which only 11 percent of the voters cast their ballots. (Reuters)

Tunisian authorities have arrested the leader of the Ennahda opposition movement in a crackdown on rival politicians and critics of the North African country's increasingly authoritarian president Kais Saied, according to lawyers.

Noureddine Bhiri, a senior Ennahda leader, was taken into custody by armed police at his home in the capital, Tunis, late Monday on suspicion of being part of a “conspiracy against the country’s security,” the movement’s lawyer, Ines Harrathi, said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

Lazhar Akremi, a lawyer and critic of Saied, and Noureddine Bouttar, the director general of an independent radio station, Mosaïque, were also arrested by the security forces overnight Tuesday, according to Bouttar’s lawyer, Dalila Msaddek.

Authorities have not released any information on the wave of arrests that started over the weekend.

The crackdown — targeting Tunisian opposition figures, the president’s critics and opponents in the media, judiciary and economic community — comes after a disastrous parliamentary election last month in which only 11 percent of the voters cast their ballots.

The vote was organised by Saied, who is determined to reshape the country’s political system and replace a legislature that he had dissolved in 2021.

Tunisia is going through a major economic crisis, with soaring inflation and unemployment, particularly among the country’s youth. Critics of Saied's leadership and political elites accuse them of bringing the country's economy to the brink of bankruptcy.

READ MORE: Low turnout hobbles Tunisia’s second round of parliamentary polls

 

Tunisia arrests senior Ennahda figure, radio boss

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
14 February, 2023

A senior figure in Tunisia's Ennahda movement party and the head of a popular radio station have been arrested in the North African country.


Ennahda's Bhiri was detained for more than eight weeks early last year 

Tunisian police have detained a senior figure in the Islamist-inspired Ennahda party and the head of an independent radio station, the party and Tunisian media reported.

The arrests of former justice minister Noureddine Bhiri and Mosaique FM director Noureddine Boutar on Monday night were the latest in a crackdown that has targeted activists, former lawyers and a prominent businessman.

Dozens of police officers raided Bhiri's house in Tunis and "took him to an unknown location," Ennahda spokesman Abdelfattah Taghouti told AFP.

Bhiri, 64, had been detained for more than eight weeks early last year, a few months after President Kais Saied froze the Ennahda-dominated parliament in a power grab his opponents have described as a coup.

During his detention, Bhiri staged a hunger strike, stopped taking medicines and was hospitalised before agreeing to be fed by drip.

He was later released but remains under investigation on charges related to "terrorism", according to authorities.

Mosaique FM, a popular news station, reported that police had also detained Boutar without indicating what he was accused of.

The arrests came two days after the arrest of tycoon Kamel Eltaief, former top Ennahda figure Abdelhamid Jelassi and political activist Khayam Turki.

Many Tunisians saw Eltaief, a former confidant of ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, as a symbol of corruption in the North African nation.

But his arrest comes amid a spike in prosecutions against politicians, journalists and other rivals of Saied, often in military courts, since the president's dramatic move against parliament and the Ennahda-backed government in July 2021.

Since then, Saied's opponents have accused him of bringing back authoritarian rule in the birthplace of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.

Several Tunisian media outlets have reported that those arrested at the weekend were suspected of "plotting against state security".

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