Shaaban Bilal (Cairo)
The Tunisian authorities are continuing their measures to confront corrupt funds related to terrorism, the latest of which is by freezing the financial accounts of ten personalities, including Rached Ghannouchi, leader of the Ennahda party, members of his family, and former Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, a former Ennahda leader.
Political experts and analysts linked the Tunisian judiciary’s decisions to freeze the financial accounts of Brotherhood leaders with involvement in supporting terrorism, money laundering and other operations that harm the interests of the Tunisian people and violate the law, stressing that these decisions represent a symbolic beginning that writes the first chapters of the Brotherhood’s accountability.
Tunisian political analyst Nizar Al-Jledi described this step as revolutionary, and the beginning of the end of the era of “Brotherhood” dominance in Tunisia over the judiciary, expecting that the coming days will witness arrests of leading “Brotherhood” figures, who was just getting close to them is considered a risk.
He added to “Al-Ittihad”, that Tunisians have not yet believed the decision, which was just talking about it a figment of the imagination, after the group’s control over the joints of the judiciary and the state for more than ten years, during which they wreaked corruption and achieved an obscene wealth, stressing that this decision represents the liberation of the judiciary from the control of the Ennahda movement Which I turned into a paper used by the Brotherhood to cover up their crimes of corruption and terrorism.
However, the Tunisian analyst considered that the effects of this decision on the ground of the incident would not be significant because the group’s real money, especially the Ghannouchi family, is not deposited in Tunisia, which is confirmed by the comment of Rafik Abdel Salam, Ghannouchi’s brother-in-law, on this decision by saying that he only has 1,700 dinars that were frozen, Adding that this is unbelievable and confirms that his assets are in foreign countries as well as others.
During the past few days, the first anti-terrorism investigative judge issued a decision to freeze the funds and assets of a number of defendants in the case related to the “Namaa Tounes” association and the related corruption and money laundering association.
Lawyer and political analyst Hazem Kasuri considered that the freezing of the assets of Ghannouchi and all of the organization’s arms comes within the framework of a case published by the Investigation Office 23 of the Judicial Anti-Terrorism Pole of the Court of First Instance in Tunis, adding that there are compelling evidences of terrorist crimes and related to money laundering in accordance with the law on combating Terrorism and money laundering prevention. Kasuri, who is the head of the Free Tunisia Forum, added to Al-Ittihad that this file is at the heart of the Brotherhood’s secret apparatus and its methods of work inside and outside Tunisia, pointing to the need for intense judicial security cooperation with brotherly and friendly countries to bring the perpetrators to justice, and to implement the principle of sovereignty. The law, without forgetting the crimes of deportation and involvement in the file of foreign fighters in the Arab region, and in accordance with international commitments.
The list of defendants included in the decision to freeze the funds included the head of the “Brotherhood Renaissance” movement, Rashid Ghannouchi, his son Moaz, his daughter Sumaya and his son-in-law, Rafiq Abdel Salam, who is fleeing outside the border, in addition to the former Prime Minister and former leader of the Ennahda, Hammadi Al-Jabali, his two daughters and son-in-law, in addition to a number of other defendants, namely Brotherhood leaders and associated with them.
In addition, political analyst and researcher in Arab affairs, Muhammad Hamida, said that Ghannouchi was summoned on July 19 to investigate the allegations against him in the so-called “Namaa Association” case, which is still under investigation, and no final ruling has been issued so far.