Published: Just now
Tunisia’s former prime minister, opposition leader Ali Larayedh, is to be detained under an order by an anti-terror judge.
The leading opposition party Ennahda believes that the decision is politically motivated.
The deprivation of liberty is said to be linked to similar verdicts involving high-ranking members of the Islamist party Ennahda, according to a lawyer who followed the case. Accusations must relate to collaboration with the IS terrorist movement in Syria. But transparency in the legal process is non-existent.
Ennahda was previously the largest party in Tunisia’s parliament, but the political landscape has changed radically since Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed suspended parliament and dismissed the prime minister in the summer of 2021. The president has since consolidated his power through a contested referendum.
Ennahda and several other parties liken the exercise of power to a coup d’état, and accuse the regime of “deliberately targeting the deputy leader Larayedh”.
The party also claims that the decision is an attempt by President Saïed to cover up the turnout in the first round of the parliamentary elections on Saturday. Only eleven percent of those eligible to vote in the country chose to vote. Nine million Tunisians have the right to vote.
The second and decisive round of elections will take place on January 21. The leading opposition parties, including Ennahda, are boycotting the election completely.