A few days before a referendum proposed by the Tunisian president, of which Ennahda is the pet peeve, supporters of Rached Ghannouchi feared that he would be arrested after his hearing.

The leader of the Islamist-inspired party Ennahda was questioned on Tuesday July 19 in Tunis by the anti-terrorist unit.

"After an instruction session which lasted more than 9 hours, and 19 pleadings (out of 100 requested by the lawyers), the president of the People's Assembly (Parliament) Rached Ghannouchi left the judicial center to return to his home" , said his lawyer and former Ennahda official, Samir Dilou on his Facebook page.

Rached Ghannouchi was "left free to move" by the anti-terrorist unit, Samir Dilou told AFP.

Another of his lawyers told AFP that he was not subject to "judicial control measures".

The President of Parliament – ​​dissolved at the end of March by President Kaïs Saïed – entered around 9 a.m. (GMT, 11 a.m. in Paris) at the headquarters of this specialized center to the cheers of around 150 activists from his party, supervised by around twenty security vans, noted AFP journalists.

"Stop Political Trials" ("Stop the political trials"), could be read on the placards of the demonstrators.

The accounts of Rached Ghannouchi and other opponents frozen

Rached Ghannouchi, 81, has been under investigation since June on suspicion of corruption and money laundering linked to transfers from abroad to the Ennahda-affiliated charity Namaa Tunisie.

As part of the same investigation, the Tunisian justice had arrested, then released last month, the former Prime Minister and leader of Ennahda, Hamadi Jebali, who remains suspected of "money laundering".

He will have to appear on July 20 before the judicial pole.

At the beginning of July, the justice ordered the freezing of the bank accounts of Rached Ghannouchi and a dozen members of his family and his party.

Separately, on June 27, judicial authorities banned Rached Ghannouchi from traveling abroad as part of another investigation into the 2013 assassinations of two left-wing leaders.

Ennahda and Rached Ghannouchi denied all charges against them.

Tunisia has been going through a deep political crisis since the coup by President Kaïs Saïed on July 25, 2021, which suspended the Parliament dominated by Ennahda and dismissed the government.

Kaïs Saïed is under fire from intense criticism from the opposition for having excluded him from a national dialogue on a new Constitution which he plans to submit to a referendum on July 25.

The opposition, notably Ennahda, as well as human rights organizations accuse him of wanting to have a text tailor-made for him adopted and of using state and judicial institutions to settle his scores politically.

With AFP

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