Noureddine Bhiri, the leader of the Tunisian Islamo-conservative Ennahdha party, was arrested on Monday February 13, according to the political party. Bhiri was “arrested and taken to an unknown location” during a police raid, party spokesman Abdelfattah Taghouti told Agence France-Presse. A hundred agents participated in this operation which took place at his home in Tunis.
This 64-year-old former justice minister had already been detained for more than two months in early 2022, five months after the coup by President Kaïs Saïed, who suspended the Parliament controlled by Ennahdha, his pet peeve.
He had stopped eating as soon as he was arrested, before agreeing to be infused in a hospital where he had been transferred while in detention. Despite his release, Mr. Bhiri was still being investigated on suspicion of “terrorism”, authorities said.
Wave of arrests
Tunisian police also arrested Noureddine Boutar, the general manager of the private Mosaïque FM radio station, very popular in Tunisia, on Monday evening. “A security brigade searched the home of the general manager of Radio Mosaïque FM, Noureddine Boutar before arresting him. His family has not been informed of the reasons for this arrest,” the radio said.
Tunisian security forces had already arrested several people on Saturday, including businessman Kamel Eltaïef, very influential in political circles, Abdelhamid Jelassi, former leader of Ennahdha, political activist Khayam Turki, and two former magistrates. According to local media, those arrested this weekend are suspected of “conspiracy against state security”.
A man in the shadows, Mr Eltaïef, 68, is seen by many Tunisians as one of the symbols of corruption since the Ben Ali years. A lobbyist with strong diplomatic connections, he has made and broken careers in law enforcement and politics.
Since President Saïed’s coup, several politicians have been the subject of legal proceedings denounced by the opposition as settling scores.
The opposition accuses Mr. Saïed of establishing an authoritarian regime repressing freedoms and threatening democracy in Tunisia, where the first revolt of the Arab Spring overthrew the dictatorship of Ben Ali in 2011.
