“February Words” bring back Ghannouchi for questioning .. and imprisonment awaits

Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of Tunisia’s Muslim Brotherhood, has once again appeared before the anti-terrorist squad in Aouina, on the outskirts of Tunis, in a terrorism case.

Rached Ghannouchi was transferred by Tunisian security forces to the headquarters of the anti-terrorism squad on Monday to be interrogated over violent statements he made and described security officials as tyrants following a complaint lodged against him by the general secretariat of the Internal Security Forces Syndicate.

The investigation comes after Ghannouchi issued a eulogy to a Brotherhood leader in February in the southern Tunisian province of Tataouine, insulting security personnel.

Ghannouchi described the security forces as “tyrants” when he said at the funeral of the deceased member of Ennahdha’s Shura Council: “He was a brave man, fearing neither poverty, nor ruler, nor tyrant, fearing only God.”

Observers believe terrorists use these words and usually target security forces, the military, and the state.

“The Assistant Secretary General of the Secretariat of the Internal Security Forces, Moez al-Dababi, has already said that the complaint against Ghannouchi was brought to justice on February 25.”

Ghannouchi’s categorization of security personnel as “tyrants” is a call on terrorist groups to liquidate security personnel and target them, he said.

He noted that judicial sentences in such cases could reach up to five years in prison.

“Loyalty to the Past”
Observers familiar with the legacy of the octogenarian, Ghannouchi, described him as “still faithful to his anti-state rhetoric, having since the 1970s belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood, disowned the Tunisian authorities in the 1980s and 1990s, and sent his supporters to burn down security headquarters.”

The leader of the Tunisian Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS, had already considered one of his sons in a famous 2012 statement in which he said, “They think of me as my youth”; The speech opens a door of criticism that the movement could not close without saying that “speech has been taken out of context.”

Last week, the Tunisian judiciary issued a prison warrant against Rached Ghannouchi on charges of inciting national security and advocating violence over remarks he made that Tunisia had written political Islam and Ennahdha was a project for civil war.

“Last Monday, Tunisian security forces arrested Ghannouchi after raiding and searching his home and closed down the headquarters of the Brotherhood’s Ennahdha Movement after searching it, according to a decision by Tunisian Interior Minister Kamal El Faqih.”

It was also decided to ban meetings at Ennahdha’s headquarters in Tunisian territory on the basis of Chapter VII of Order No. 50 of 1978 on the organization of the state of emergency, and to ban meetings at the headquarters of the pro-Brotherhood Salvation Front.

Secret talks
A search of Ghannouchi’s home last week led to the confiscation of important documents related to the case of conspiracy against state security and the seizure of computers at Ennahdha’s headquarters.

The same sources confirmed that Ghannouchi’s telephone, which was confiscated, included secret conversations related to his suspicious networks inside and outside the country, especially the parties that were with him in many major issues, foremost among them the file of terrorists’ travel to hotbeds of tension.