TUNIS (Archyde.com) – Rached Ghannouchi, the elderly leader of Tunisia’s opposition Ennahda party, is still awaiting interrogation by anti-terror police, a lawyer said on Monday, more than ten hours following he arrived at the Bouchoucha barracks in the Tunisian capital, accusing the authorities of abuse. With Ghannouchi.
Ghannouchi, 81, who was speaker of the dissolved parliament, is facing an investigation into accusations related to terrorism and a role in the deportation of jihadists to Syria and Iraq, accusations denied by his party, describing them as a political attack on opponents of President Qais Saeed.
Ennahda has accused Saied of orchestrating an anti-democratic coup since seizing most of the powers last summer and ruling by decree, powers that were formalized largely with a new constitution approved in a referendum in July.
Dozens of demonstrators, including lawyers and political activists, gathered in front of the Bouchoucha police station in the capital to protest once morest the questioning of Ghannouchi, who denounced President Kais Saied’s control of wide powers and his dissolution of Parliament.
Some of them chanted, “Freedoms, freedoms.. The police state is dead.. Freedoms, not fulfilling the instructions.. We are with Ghannouchi.” Others chanted: “Down with the coup, down with Qais Saeed.”
Lawyers said that the interrogation of Ghannouchi and Ali Al-Arayedh, a former prime minister, related to the suspicion of “sending jihadists to Syria and Iraq.”
About five hours following Larayedh arrived at the Bouchoucha barracks, interrogators began interrogating him, lawyers said.
Lawyer Reda Belhaj told Archyde.com, “All the waiting hours are a clear attempt to intimidate, and then the file is empty and without evidence.”
The Tunisian authorities did not give any statement regarding the reason for summoning Ghannouchi and Al-Arayedh.
Last month, the authorities arrested a number of former security officials and two members of the Ennahda movement on charges related to Tunisians traveling for jihad. Muhammad Farikha, a former Ennahda leader and owner of a private airline, was imprisoned in what became known in Tunisia as the case of “the deportation of jihadists to Syria.”
The Ennahda leader has been an influence in Tunisian politics since the 2011 revolution, when his party joined several successive coalition governments.
Ghannouchi told Archyde.com late on Saturday that the investigation was “a new attempt to target opponents and a new step for exclusion.”
Al-Arayedh, who also served as Interior Minister, told reporters that he had not been officially notified of the reason for his summons, but leaks indicate that the matter is related to sending jihadists to Syria.
In recent years, security and official sources estimated that regarding 6000 Tunisians went to Syria and Iraq in the past decade to join jihadist groups, including the Islamic State.
Many were killed there, while others fled to other countries and some returned to Tunisia.
“I was once morest this phenomenon and took measures to reduce it,” Al-Arayedh said, noting that the goal was to distract the public from the rise in prices, the loss of goods and the many problems in the country.
Secular parties in Tunisia have accused Ennahda of leniency with radical Islamists during its post-revolution rule and urging young men in mosques and private meetings to wage jihad in Syria, something the party has consistently denied.