A figure of the Tunisian opposition for more than half a century, Ahmed Néjib Chebbi appeared on Friday June 16 before the investigating judge of the Tunis anti-terrorism unit. The current president of the National Salvation Front (FSN), the main opposition coalition to Kais Saïed, is accused of “conspiracy” alongside several other political figures – including his brother Issam Chebbi – imprisoned since February.

According to the elements of the judicial file to which Le Monde had access, the latter are suspected of having established contacts with diplomats with the presumed intention of undermining “undermining the external security of the State”. Among these diplomats are André Parant, current French ambassador to Tunisia, as well as the former Italian ambassador Lorenzo Fanara or Fernando Villalonga, minister adviser to the Spanish ambassador.

“Today, opposing has become a crime punishable by imprisonment,” Ahmed Néjib Chebbi said on Friday outside the premises of the anti-terrorism unit, surrounded by relatives, lawyers and activists. “This is the first time since 1968 that I have appeared before an investigating judge,” he added, before heading to the magistrate’s office on the arm of his daughter, Haifa Chebbi, also a lawyer.

During his hearing, Ahmed Néjib Chebbi was only questioned about his meetings with diplomats, particularly the Italian and Spanish ambassadors, said one of his lawyers, Dalila Ben Mbarek Msaddek, in a statement to Le Monde. “He simply replied that he had been in politics for more than fifty years and that he knew all the diplomats, but otherwise refused to answer the judge’s questions in the absence of elements likely to incriminate him. “, she added. “Even under Ben Ali, he was meeting with ambassadors and that was never evidence of indictment,” Haifa Chebbi said.

Kais Saied’s “Coup”

Sentenced at the end of the 1960s to eleven years in prison, Ahmed Néjib Chebbi was pardoned in 1970 by former President Habib Bourguiba before going into exile in Algeria and then in France. He returned definitively to Tunisia in 1977 and continued his fight against the dictatorship there until the departure of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011. Elected deputy to the Constituent Assembly in October of the same year, he ran for the 2014 presidential election but won only 1% of the vote.

Following Kaïs Saïed’s coup on July 25, 2021, he quickly declared his opposition to what he described as a “coup d’etat” and announced in April 2022 the formation of a National Salvation Front, which brought together political parties including Ennahda, and independent activist groups such as Citizens Against the Coup. The wave of arrests that affected many FSN executives also affected the historic leader of the Islamo-conservative party, Rached Ghannouchi. The day after his arrest, on April 17, the premises of his party and that of the FSN were closed throughout the territory.

Spanish diplomat Fernando Villalonga, whose screenshots of conversations with Khayam Turki, a pro-democracy activist imprisoned since February 11, were included in the file, was openly surprised at the importance given to these exchanges. “Khayam Turki, Spanish by mother, is an old friend. These messages are nothing special and I don’t have any more details on this case, I myself am an observer of what is happening, “he regretted.

Has it become dangerous for an actor in political or social life in Tunisia to exchange with Western chancelleries? At the beginning of April, the anti-terrorism unit had mentioned “false allegations” in an attempt to calm the situation. “They contradict each other. During interrogations, the questions mainly revolve around meetings with diplomats, but then they publicly deny it. We do not understand the approach of the examining magistrate, nor of the State,” denounced Haifa Chebbi.

A dozen “conspiracy” files

Remaining in front of the judicial pole during the interrogation, Ezzedine Hazgui, a far-left activist of the same generation as Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, is indignant: “I no longer know where I live. I filed a complaint against Ben Ali and I was not imprisoned. Where were they when Chebbi opposed the dictatorship? [Kaïs Saïed], who is in Carthage today, was hiding. »

A few hours later, Ahmed Néjib Chebbi finally came out free. He is one of the last survivors among the executives of the FSN, which he has chaired since 2022 and is to date the only defendant in this case to have been released after his hearing by the judge, while eight of his comrades are still imprisoned for more than four months.

The judicial and police machines controlled by the executive power have been working since the beginning of the year to build a dozen “conspiracy” files, based on testimonies, some of which are anonymous. In total, around twenty opponents of the Kaïs Saïed regime are thus behind bars, in addition to judges, trade unionists and former security executives.