In Tunisia, the vice-president of the opposition party Ennahdha arrested

The vice-president of Ennahdha and former minister of justice, a close friend of Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of this Islamist-inspired party and the head of state’s bête noire, was arrested on December 31, 2020 in Tunis. “Plainclothes officers who were in two cars arrested Noureddine Bhiri while he was out with his wife from her home in El Manar”, a district of the capital, told Agence France-Presse, lawyer Samir Dilou, deputy resigned from Ennahdha.

According to him, the vice-president of Ennahdha, was “Taken to an unknown destination” by plainclothes agents who also seized the cell phone of his wife Saïda Akremi, a lawyer by profession.

Analysis: In Tunisia, the president wants to silence critical voices

The Interior Ministry simply announced that it had ordered the house arrest of two people, without naming names, one “Preventive measure dictated by the need to preserve national security”.

Ennahdha denounced for his part, in a press release, “A kidnapping and a dangerous precedent which marks the entry of the country into the tunnel of dictatorship” and “The liquidation of opponents outside the framework of the law”. According to Zeineb Brahmi, the party’s legal official, this arrest would indeed have taken place in the absence of any instruction from the civil and military prosecutors.

A popular consultation

This event comes as part of the standoff between Ennhadha and President Kais Saied, since the latter’s decision, on July 25, 2020, to dismiss the prime minister and suspend the Parliament that Ennahdha had controlled for ten years. , on the grounds of a political and economic blockage.

Several parties and opponents, including the powerful UGTT trade union center, denounced this coup by a president who thus arrogated to himself full powers. Among them, former President Moncef Marzouki, was sentenced on December 22, 2020 in absentia to four years in prison for “Threat to state security abroad” after having publicly criticized the Tunisian power from Paris.

The real bogus consultation of the president

President Kais Saied promised a legislative ballot in December 2022, but after a revision of the electoral law and a referendum in July 2022 to amend the Constitution, which he wants more “Presidential”at the expense of Parliament. On January 1, 2022, he launched an electronic platform officially intended to collect Tunisians’ suggestions on these reform projects until March 20.

Knowing that only 45% of Tunisian households have an Internet connection, the others will be able to go to various neighborhood committees. A consultation purely ” populist “, Denounce the detractors of the president, elected in 2019 with nearly 73% of the vote, and who continues to enjoy solid popularity.

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