Mokhtar al-Jomai, a member of the defense team of Ennahda leader Rached Ghannouchi, denied in a call with Al Jazeera that Ghannouchi went on hunger strike, contrary to what was circulated by some websites and activists on social networking pages.
For her part, Somaya Ghannouchi, daughter of Ennahda leader Rached Ghannouchi, confirmed that her father decided to boycott the investigation sessions after attending more than 120 hours of investigation in cases she described as contrived and empty.
Somaya Ghannouchi said in a post published on Twitter that the boycott decision came as a refusal to engage in the play of political trials and endless investigation sessions, and that the aim is to drain Ghannouchi psychologically and physically.
Refusing to engage in the play of political trials and endless interrogation sessions aimed at draining #الغنوشي psychologically and physically, my father decides to boycott the interrogation sessions, after attending more than 120 hours of interrogation in fabricated cases with empty files. Let the putschists perform their plays alone, save themselves and hear their voices!
— Soumaya Ghannoushi Somaya Ghannouchi (@SMGhannoushi) April 25, 2023
Ghannouchi was transferred on Monday from his prison in the capital to the National Guard Brigade, and was interrogated before the Anti-Terrorism Brigade in connection with a new terrorist case after a lawsuit filed against him by an unnamed person.
The investigating judge at the Court of First Instance in Tunis ordered at dawn last Thursday, the imprisonment of the head of the Ennahda movement, Rached Ghannouchi, because of his previous statements described as inflammatory.
Ennahda condemned "strongly" the imprisonment of its president "unjustly", stressing that the decision to imprison is a political decision par excellence, and that "the abuse of a national symbol such as Ghannouchi will not save the country from its complex crises and will not discourage honest opponents."
In a recorded speech before his arrest broadcast by the movement for the first time, Ghannouchi said that "the battle in Tunisia is between democracy and dictatorship that wants to confiscate the gains of the revolution," noting that "the files filed against us are empty files with the testimony of jurists."
"The authority is practicing political targeting by judicial means, and the brutal coup pushes towards more calamities, and arresting me and arresting activists will not solve the problems of high prices," he said.
Regional and international powers criticized the arrest of Tunisian authorities Rached Ghannouchi and called for respect for the principles of law, freedoms and political pluralism in the country.