A spokeswoman for the Ennahda Movement party said - today, Monday - that the police summoned the party's leader, Rashid Ghannouchi, for interrogation tomorrow, as part of an investigation whose reasons have not been revealed, in light of a wave of arrests of prominent politicians criticizing President Kais Saied.
The Ennahda movement said that what it described as the power of the coup d'état involved the judiciary and security institutions in politics.
Ghannouchi was interrogated several times last year on suspicion of illegal financing of Ennahda, but the movement denied these accusations.
The movement played a leading role in successive coalition governments after the 2011 revolution that brought democracy to Tunisia.
No decision was issued to detain Ghannouchi in the cases that were investigated with him.
President Saied took control of most of the authorities in Tunisia in 2021, issued a decree dissolving parliament, and headed to rule by decrees before rewriting the constitution, in steps that his critics, including the Ennahda Party, denounced as a coup.
arrest campaign
Tunisia has been witnessing an unprecedented campaign of arrests since 2011, including party leaders, activists and two former judges.
President Qais Saeed accused some of the detainees of "conspiring against state security," and held them responsible for the shortages of goods and the rise in prices.
These arrests drew criticism at home and abroad, with UN Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk expressing concern about "the growing crackdown on political opponents and civil society in Tunisia".
Among those arrested were the political activist Khayyam al-Turki, the lawyer and political activist Al-Azhar Al-Akrami, the former leader of the Ennahda Movement, Abdul Hamid Al-Jelassi, and the businessman Kamal Al-Latif.
A large number of lawyers pleading in political cases were also referred to investigation, on the background of a complaint filed by a security union during the arrest of the leader of the Ennahda Movement, Noureddine al-Buhairi, 14 months ago.
Lawyer Enas Al-Harrath confirmed that 14 lawyers had been invited to investigate, without clarifying the charges against them.
She indicated that the investigating judge will hear them in batches next March.
The list includes a number of lawyers opposing what they describe as the coup of President Qais Saeed or who represent a number of opponents, among them the former dean of lawyers, Abd al-Razzaq al-Kilani, Samir Dilo, a leader in the opposition National Salvation Front, Enas al-Harath, as well as Saida al-Akrami, the wife of the leader in the Ennahda movement, Noureddine al-Buhairi.