The Ennahda movement in Tunisia expressed its strong condemnation of what it described as the random arrests of several figures, including the movement's leader, Habib El-Louz, and demanded their immediate release.
The movement said in a statement this evening, Wednesday, that Al-Louz - a member of the movement's Shura Council - was arrested by unknown elements and without respect for legal procedures.
The movement demanded an end to the campaign of arrests, and condemned the accompanying malicious media campaigns launched by some parties and parties known to be hostile to the Ennahda movement, according to the statement.
The movement considered that what is happening is "a new attempt to distract public opinion from the burning issues that preoccupy it in light of the blockage of prospects, the low level of optimism among Tunisians, and the failure of the options of the coup authority."
The statement criticized this authority, which it said "has burdened the citizen with incendiary increases in prices and the loss of basic foodstuffs, including bread, water, milk, sugar and oil, and the high costs of returning to school and university."
Earlier, local media reported that Habib El-Louz, the former parliamentarian and head of the Association for Call and Reform, was arrested Wednesday in Sfax by the National Unit for Research into Terrorism Crimes.
The German news agency quoted a source in the Tunisian Ministry of the Interior as saying that Al-Louz was arrested "in the context of the ongoing investigations into the networks of extradition to fight in Syria."
The same source reported the arrest of the former Director General of Borders and Foreigners Affairs, Lotfi Al-Saghir, who was referred to compulsory retirement for interrogation in the same file.
And local media said that the arrests included, until today, Wednesday, other former security cadres, including Fathi Al-Baladi, Abdel Karim Al-Obeidi and Fathi Boussaida, as well as businessman Mohamed Farikha, former parliamentarian Reda Al-Jawadi and Sheikh Al-Bashir Belhassan.
Radio Mosaique reported that the Public Prosecution Office of the Anti-Terrorism Judicial Pole decided to open a criminal investigation against 126 people on suspicion of involvement in the so-called "export networks".
The Ennahda Movement denies any connection with this file, and says that it is subjected to campaigns with the intent of distorting and fabricating malicious charges.