Rached Ghannouchi, one of the main opponents of Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed and leader of the Ennahdha party, was arrested on Monday, April 17, authorities announced. At 81, the leader of the Islamo-conservative movement led Parliament, dissolved in July 2021 by the head of state, and is the most prominent opponent to be arrested since this coup.
A source at the Interior Ministry confirmed that his arrest was linked to statements he had made and reported by the media. He said this weekend that Tunisia would be threatened with a “civil war” if political Islam, from which his party originated, was eliminated there.
The political opponent was arrested by police at his home in Tunis, he said in a statement, denouncing “this extremely serious development” and calling for his “immediate freedom”. Mondher Lounissi, the vice president, claimed Rached Ghannouchi was taken to a police barracks for questioning and his lawyers were not allowed to attend.
His arrest took place at the time of iftar, the fast-breaking meal of Ramadan, and hours before worshipers celebrate the holy night of “destiny”.
In July of the same year, he was also questioned on suspicion of corruption and money laundering linked to the transfer of funds from abroad to a charity organization affiliated with Ennahdha.
Since the beginning of February, the authorities have imprisoned more than twenty opponents and personalities including ex-ministers, businessmen and the owner of the most listened to radio station in the country, Mosaïque FM. These arrests, denounced by local and international NGOs, targeted leading political figures of the National Salvation Front (FSN), the main opposition coalition of which Ennahdha is a member.
President Saïed, who has assumed full powers since his July 2021 coup, called those arrested “terrorists”, saying they were involved in a “conspiracy against state security”.
But the arrest of the leader of the country’s largest political party, “who has always shown his commitment to peaceful political action”, underlines Ahmed Néjib Chebbi, the president of the FSN, “marks a new phase in the crisis”. “This is blind revenge against opponents.”
After his coup, Kaïs Saïed had the Constitution revised to establish an ultra-presidentialist system at the expense of Parliament, which no longer has real powers, unlike the dissolved Assembly dominated by Ennahdha.
Failing to be able to gather an absolute majority, he has always managed to ensure that Ennahdha is essential in the various coalitions since the revolution. Even if it means making unnatural alliances with the liberal Qalb Tounes party of businessman Nabil Karoui, or with former President Béji Caïd Essebsi, arguing the need for a “consensus” necessary for the democratic transition.
At the beginning of his career, he was first inspired by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, before claiming the Turkish Islamist model of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He then turned Ennahdha into a civil movement, supposed since 2016 to be devoted only to politics, and has since appeared as a “Muslim democrat” defending conservative values ??without dogmatism.
