The Tunisian Ennahda party announced on Saturday that one of the leaders had gone on hunger strike to protest his arrest since last April, while the opposition National Salvation Front renewed its demand for the "immediate release of a number of political detainees."
In a statement, Ennahda blamed the investigative judge and the authorities for the deteriorating health of the movement's leader, Ahmed al-Mashriqi.
Ennahda condemned what it called "practices that do not respect the human self or the laws and customs of the country" and considered that forcing detainees to go on hunger strikes as a last resort to defend themselves is a dangerous policy and a major risk to the lives of Tunisians whose only fault is their disagreement with the ruling authority.
The investigative judge of the Court of First Instance in Tunis issued on April 18 / April last a prison warrant against both the head of the Ennahda movement Rached Ghannouchi and his director of office Ahmed Mashriqi.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=824448162385172&set=a.823182829178372
The "Salvation" Front. Pause and demands
In a related context, the "Salvation" Front renewed on Saturday its demand for the authorities to "immediately release a number of political detainees" in what is known as the case of conspiracy against state security.
This came during a sit-in carried out by supporters of the Front on Habib Bourguiba Avenue in Tunis, during which they raised slogans such as "freedoms, freedoms, not the fulfillment of instructions, praising (adherent) to the release of detainees," without immediate comment from the authorities on these demands.
In the same context, Elias, the son of former Secretary-General of the Democratic Current Party, Ghazi Chaouachi, who is detained in connection with what is known as the case of conspiracy against the order of the state, said that he received a summons to appear before a security team specialized in combating cybercrime, without further explanation regarding the background of this summons.
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=6646624238730498&set=a.553934174666232
"The father is in prison and the son is in exile, and I am being prosecuted for the displacement and separation of the family," Chaouachi Jr. said in a Facebook post, adding that resistance continues against the police state and against the policy of Kais Saied and Justice Minister Leila Jaffal, as he described in the post.
Since February 11, Tunisia has witnessed a campaign of arrests that included politicians, media professionals, activists, judges and businessmen, and President Saied accused some of those arrested of "conspiring against state security and being behind the crises of distributing goods and rising prices."
Saeed has repeatedly stressed the independence of judicial authorities, 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.