INTERVIEW
The confusion still reigns around the presidential elections in Tunisia, scheduled for September 15 and organized in a rush after the death of President Béji Caïd Essebsi on July 25. Ten days into the first round of voting, one of the main candidates, Nabil Karoui, is still in prison since his arrest on August 23, after being charged with "money laundering". A situation that has raised tension in the country and has fed accusations of instrumentalization of justice.
Invited Thursday of Europe 1, the wife of the candidate, Salwa Smaoui, accuses her directly the head of the government Youssef Chahed to be at the origin of this arrest. "The people in power today, I hold them responsible for the arrest of my husband," she says.
Nabil Karoui, "standing like a lion"
At the microphone of Matthieu Belliard, Salwa Smaoui reassures entry: her husband, she can only see once a week, "is fine". "He is standing like a lion, he continues to manage his campaign (...) still believes in his cause, but with an enormous sense of injustice," she describes.
" My husband is in prison while there has been no judgment by any court "Nabil Karoui, a businessman, was for three years under investigation for money laundering, after the filing by the anti-corruption NGO I-Watch a case accusing him of tax fraud. But Salwa Smaoui believes that justice is used to "condemn" him.
"My husband is in jail while there has been no judgment by any court," she laments. "After the investigations, my husband was released because there was no evidence," she adds, regretting that Nabil Karoui was "kidnapped" by his presumption of innocence. "We can not leave things like this in the light of everyone's knowledge," she rebels. "Justice is paramount (...) No one has the right to do that to their citizens."
"My husband was under a lot of harassment"
And for Salwa Smaoui, those responsible for the arrest of her husband are known: Prime Minister Youssef Chahed and his government. "Yes, I'm accusing her," she assumes about Youssef Chahed. And to continue: "The people who are in power today, I bear them responsible for the arrest of my husband."
"My husband expected the worst, he was subjected to a lot of harassment for six months (...) and finally we used the means of the prison", she regrets, recalling that the government had already introduced a law allowing eliminate Nabil Karoui from the race. An amendment that had not been finally promulgated. "We could not eliminate it by the law (...) so they resorted to justice and confinement in a prison".