Tunisia: the Ennahdha party shaken by a wave of arrests
Rached Ghannouchi, leader of the Tunisian Islamist party Ennahdha, in Tunis, the capital, September 20, 2022. AFP - FETHI BELAID
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2 mins
The legal turmoil continues for the Ennahdha party.
For several months, the Islamist movement has been in the sights of Tunisian justice.
Cited in several sensitive files, the party, which until recently was the leading political force in the country, now lives to the rhythm of arrests.
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With our correspondent in Tunis,
Amira Souilem
This is the latest episode in a long series of arrests.
Ali Larayedh
, former Tunisian Prime Minister, was arrested again earlier this week.
Last September, this Ennahdha executive, who was also interior minister, had already been placed in preventive detention before being released.
Rached Ghannouchi, president of the movement, meanwhile,
was heard 6 times
and released each time.
The historical leader of the party should be summoned again by the courts next week.
In the meantime, his accounts have been blocked on suspicion of money laundering.
But the two men are above all cited in several cases relating to the country's internal security, and in particular in the emblematic case of sending thousands of Tunisian jihadists to the Syrian, Iraqi or even Libyan war grounds in the early 2010s, when the party was in business in Tunisia.
Justice also suspects them of being behind the assassinations of opponents Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi, both killed in the middle of Tunis in 2013.
“He has resources
”
Taken in a legal turmoil, the Islamist movement denounces fanciful accusations of a justice which would, according to him, be under the orders of President Kaïs Saïed who has had full powers for a year and a half.
In relative retreat since 2021, will the party have the possibility of
returning to the front of the Tunisian political scene
despite all these scandals?
“
He will no longer benefit from the electorate beyond his hard core for years to come, but he can bounce back in another form.
He has resources
,” explains Tunisian activist Nadia Chaabane.
In terms of number and occupation of political terrain, almost a third of the electorate is Ennahdha.
Over time and elections, Ennahdha has lost a large number of its voters and (the party) is now reduced to its hard core.
Tunisian activist Nadia Chaabane
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