TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisia’s main opposition Ennahda party announced on Tuesday that two of its top officials have been arrested, marking the latest in a series of actions against opponents of President Kais Saied.
Mondher Ounissi, the interim head of Ennahda, was taken into custody by the police, and shortly after, Abdel Karim Harouni, who had been recently put under house arrest, was also arrested, according to the party.
Ounissi’s arrest comes after the circulation of audio recordings on social media, allegedly featuring him, in which he accused some officials within his party of attempting to gain control over Ennahda and accepting illicit funds.
The Public Prosecution Office initiated an investigation into the recordings on Monday. In response, Ounissi took to Facebook and asserted that the recordings were fabricated.
Harouni, as the leader of the Shura Council, the highest-ranking body in Ennahda, played a significant role in the party that was formerly the largest political party in the parliament dissolved by Saied in 2021.
This year, the police have also detained Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of Ennahda and the most notable critic of Saied, along with various other party officials.
The government further imposed a ban on gatherings at all Ennahda offices and closed down all party premises, a move that Ennahda claimed aimed to strengthen a dictatorial regime.
In recent months, the police have apprehended prominent political figures who accused Saied of carrying out a coup d’état by dissolving the elected parliament in 2021 and assuming power through decree, followed by a rewriting of the constitution. Saied has labeled the detainees as “terrorists, traitors, and criminals.”
(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Writing by Tarek Amara and Moaz Abd-Alaziz; editing by Jonathan Oatis, Lincoln Feast, and Grant McCool)
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