The Tunisian judiciary investigates once again the leadership of the ‘Ennahdha’ movement
While waiting for Rached Ghannouchi, the president of the “Ennahdha” movement and the president of the dissolved Tunisian Parliament to appear next Monday before the judicial authority for combating terrorism, to investigate him on the file of “deporting Tunisian youth to hotbeds of tension” outside of Tunisia, between the years 2012 and 2013, the Tunisian judiciary started today to investigate a number of other leaders, most of whom belong to “Ennahdha” movement, on the same charge in the same file.
The Tunisian judiciary renewed today the investigation of Mohamed Affes, a leader of the Dignity Coalition party, close to Ennahdha, led by Saif Eddine Makhlouf, one day after listening to Habib Ellouze, member of Ennahdha’s Shura Council and former MP, and a decision was made to keep him if he is released.
Last Friday, the anti-terrorism investigating judge at the judicial branch postponed the interrogation of Noureddine El Khademi, a former minister of religious affairs and Ennahdha leader, to hear his statements in the same case until next week, because of his presence outside Tunisia.
It is expected that Ali Larayedh, former Prime Minister and former Minister of the Interior, will be called again on December 19, 2010 to appear in court and continue his investigation, that is, only two days after the parliamentary elections in Tunisia.
The Indictment Division of the Court of Appeal in Tunis decided last October 13th to support the decision of the investigating judge to keep 39 suspects in the event of their release, and to return the file to the investigating judge in the Judicial Police anti-terrorism court in order to continue the investigations, which the Tunisian judiciary is seeking to reach.
The Anti-Terrorism Public Prosecutor’s office, after issuing a decision to keep a group of defendants on release, also decided to appeal the decision to keep 39 out of 820 defendants researched in the same file if released, including Ghannouchi and Larayedh.
Previous hearings had ordered the imprisonment of five defendants; These are Fathi al-Baladi, who was in charge of the interior minister’s office; Muhriz al-Zouari, former director general of the interior ministry’s special services department; Abdul Karim al-Obeidi, former head of the plane protection division; Saif al-Din Rais, former spokesman for the banned Ansar al-Sharia organization; and Nour al-Din Qandour, a leader in the same organization.
The case of young Tunisians traveling to trouble spots arose in the wake of a judicial complaint filed in 2021 by Fatima al-Masdi, a former MP from the Nidaa Tounes Movement, before the military court. al-Masdi was a member of a parliamentary investigation committee formed to uncover the secrets and circumstances of networks deporting youth to trouble spots, but the military court decided to drop the case in favor of the anti-terrorism judicial branch.
Research into the matter began after Almasadi was heard as a complainant by the National Counterterrorism Unit; The judicial authorities are summoning all parties accused of participating, whether directly or indirectly, in the deportation of thousands of young men to hotbeds of tension outside Tunisia.
On the other hand, Sami Ben Salama, member of the Tunisian Elections Commission, whose membership was frozen without a presidential decision to dismiss him, considering that the Tunisian President is the one who appointed the members, announced that he had been summoned by the Criminal Cases Sub-Administration to appear before it, on Wednesday, because of several posts he published against the Elections Commission, accusing it of not respecting international standards.
