Lawyers from the Defense Committee for Political Detainees in Tunisia confirmed that the investigative judge at the Anti-Terrorism Pole of the Tunis Court issued two prison cards against two people, one of them a former political prisoner from the Ennahda movement, and the other a former mayor of the municipality of Zahra in southern Tunisia, who has nothing to do with Ennahda.
The memos were issued as part of what was known as the second state security conspiracy file, which was investigated on Tuesday.
The defense team for Rayan al-Hamzawy, the former mayor of Zahra, said in a statement that he was imprisoned after malicious charges and malicious snitching within what was known as the file of former presidential chief Nadia Okasha.
The commission announced that al-Hamzawy was on hunger strike to protest his arrest.
Some leaked investigation documents in the second state security conspiracy file revealed that among the names of the defendants in the case: former head of the presidential office Nadia Okasha, former Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, dissolved speaker of parliament Rached Ghannouchi, and a number of security leaders arrested in other cases.
Samir Dilou, a member of the defense team for political prisoners, revealed in a phone call with Al Jazeera that a new lawsuit has been filed with the Judicial Complex for Combating Terrorism at the Court of First Instance in Tunis against 21 senior state officials and former heads of government on charges of conspiring against state security.
Dilou said he feared the authorities would continue what he described as a policy of running forward, arresting other people, and denied that the suspects included figures from the opposition National Salvation Front.
Ateeq's deteriorating health
Meanwhile, Ennahda announced – on Tuesday evening – a sharp deterioration in the health of the movement's leader, Sahbi Atiq, who is detained by the country's authorities, after 18 days of hunger strike.
The movement said – in a statement – that the health condition of MP Sahbi Ateeq witnessed a sharp deterioration due to the hunger strike that he has been waging for 18 days, adding that the deterioration necessitated his transfer to the hospital on Monday night.
Atiq is on hunger strike to protest his unjust imprisonment in a fabricated and eccentric case, marred by several legal abuses, she said.
In its statement, Ennahda called for the release of Atiq and all political opponents, and an end to the policy of abuse and healing.
On Friday, Ateeq's wife, Zainab Maraihi, announced that her husband's health condition is deteriorating due to his implementation of a hunger strike since his arrest.
Since February 11, Tunisia has witnessed a campaign of arrests that included politicians, media professionals, activists, judges and businessmen.
Tunisian President Kais Saied accused some of the detainees of conspiring against state security and being behind the crises of distributing goods and rising prices, but the opposition accuses him of using the judiciary to prosecute those who reject exceptional measures that began to be imposed on July 25, 2021, which created a severe political crisis.