Tunisia arrests extra critics of President Saied

A pacesetter of Tunisia’s Islamo-conservative Ennahdha social gathering and the director of a personal radio station have been arrested Monday night time, based on the political group and the media.

The arrests come as a part of a crackdown launched this weekend by the Tunisian safety providers by which political activists, former judges, and an influential businessman have been arrested.

The chief of Ennahdha, Noureddine Bhiri, 64, was arrested and “taken to an unknown location” throughout a police raid involving 100 brokers at his residence in Tunis, stated AFP a spokesman for Ennahdha, Abdelfattah Taghouti.

This former Minister of Justice had already been detained for greater than two months in early 2022, 5 months after the coup de pressure of President Kais Saied who had suspended the parliament managed by Ennahdha, his bête noire, and has since sought to marginalize him.

He had stopped consuming as quickly as he was arrested and stopped taking his treatment earlier than agreeing to be infused in a hospital the place he had been transferred in custody.

Regardless of his launch, Mr. Bhiri was nonetheless below investigation for suspicion of “terrorism”, based on the authorities.

Police additionally arrested Noureddine Boutar, director common of the non-public radio station Mosaïque FM, which is broadly heard in Tunisia, on Monday night, the media reported.

On Saturday, the Tunisian police arrested the businessman Kamel Eltaïef, very influential in political circles and for a very long time the eminence grise of the deposed president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, in addition to two opponents, Abdelhamid Jelassi, former chief of Ennahdha and a political activist, Khayam Turki, in addition to two former judges.

A person of the shadows, Mr. Eltaïef, 68, is seen by many Tunisians as one of many symbols of corruption because the years of Ben Ali.

A lobbyist with robust diplomatic connections, Mr. Eltaïef has made and damaged careers within the police and in politics.

Based on native media, these arrested this weekend are suspected of “plotting towards state safety.

Since President Saied’s coup, a number of politicians have been prosecuted, which the opposition has denounced as settling scores.

The opposition accuses Mr. Saied of creating an authoritarian regime that represses freedoms and threatens democracy in Tunisia, the place the primary Arab Spring revolt toppled the Ben Ali dictatorship in 2011.