Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of Tunisia’s main opposition party, announced that he will begin a hunger strike on Friday.
The Ennahda party leader, the most prominent critic of Tunisian President Kais Saied, made the announcement through adviser Riad al-Shuaibi on Thursday, according to local media.
In a Facebook post, Ennahda’s adviser al-Shuaibi stated that the hunger strike would be “ongoing” until all grievances and restrictions imposed on him and other political detainees are lifted”.
Ennahda, a self-defined Muslim-democratic movement and one of the most prominent parties in Tunisia, confirmed the hunger strike in an official statement on Friday.
Ghannouchi joins Jawher Ben Mbarek, another prominent opposition figure and fierce critic of Saied, on the hunger strike.
A Tunisian judge ordered the arrest of the Ennahda leader on 17 April. Authorities are currently investigating him for money laundering and incitement to violence.
He denied the charges, just as his supporters claim the charges “are politically motivated”.
On May 15, the court sentenced Ghannouchi in absentia to a year in prison. He refused to appear before the judiciary because he believed authorities fabricated the charges for political reasons,
The sentence marked the most high-profile escalation of an authoritarian crackdown since Saied took office.
“Kais Saied is making a mockery of the judiciary, using it as a tool for political revenge and persecution,” Ghannouchi’s daughter tweeted at the time.
Calls for release
Last month, hundreds of influential figures from across the Arab and Muslim world demanded that authorities should release Ghannouchi and other political detainees in Tunisia.
According to the signatories of an open letter to Tunisian authorities, Ghannouchi’s arrest is part of a “widespread crackdown” on dissent.
The dissent has intensified since February, as the government arrested more than a dozen opposition figures. Those arrested include judges, politicians, activists and businessmen.
Ghannouchi served as the Speaker of Parliament but Saied dissolved parliament.
He led a centrist party of what he called “Muslim democrats”. The democrats aimed to find common ground with Tunisia’s secular factions in the administration.
The court jailed 82-year-old Ghannouchi with a fine in connection with public remarks he made at a funeral last year.
He praised the deceased, an Ennahda member, as a “courageous man” who did not fear “a ruler or tyrant”.
Tunisians elected Kais Saied, a former constitutional law professor, as president in 2019. He vowed to clean up corruption and cut through political chaos.
In 2021, he closed down parliament and began consolidating power.
Saied has arrested journalists, activists and political opponents, in what Amnesty International decried as “a politically motivated witch hunt”. (www.middleeasteye.net)
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