Sahbi Atigue, the terrorist and leader in Ennahdha, after his arrest – Who is he?

Since 11 February, Tunisia has witnessed a campaign of arrests of several members of the Tunisian Ennahdha movement, the Brotherhood’s arm in Tunisia, with the aim of eradicating terrorism in the country.

Tunisian President Kais Saied said the detainees “conspired against the security of the state and were behind crises” and repeatedly stressed the independence of judicial authorities.

Tunisian authorities arrested Sahbi Atigue, a leader of the Tunisian Ennahdha movement, a week after his arrest. He had been issued a deposit card in prison against his husband, Atigue, who has been detained since last week.

Sahbi Atigue was charged with money laundering, illegal possession of a foreign currency and false testimony. The wife of the Ennahdha leader claimed that “the case is malicious, and the charges against him are false.

Who is he ?

Born on 14 August 1959 in Matmata, southern Tunisia, Sahbi Atigue is a Tunisian politician and a leading figure in the Islamist-oriented Ennahda movement.

His father was a baker in Tunisia’s Tamata and received a bachelor’s degree in science and technology in 1980, after which he studied at the Faculty of Sciences in Tunis and then a bachelor’s degree in Islamic Sciences from Zeitouna University in 1985.

After that, she will receive a degree in in in-depth studies on the writings of Mohammed Al-Taher Bin Ashour in 1988, and after a long period, she will obtain a master’s degree in Islamic Sharia in 2009 from the Higher Institute for the Fundamentals of Religion in Tunisia, which is affiliated with the University of Zeitouna.

“In 2015, in the presence of several Ennahdha leaders, Atigue received his doctorate on a very honorable note, including its president, Rached Ghannouchi.”

Political track

His political career began in 1975 when he joined the terrorist group, then to the Islamic Trend Movement, which later became Ennahdha, and he was first imprisoned in 1987, and served as a leading figure of Ennahdha in 1991, spending 16 years and 8 months in prison, where he was arrested on 22 March 1991 and sentenced in 1992 to life imprisonment by the Bouchoucha Military Court in Tunis.

After the 2011 Tunisian revolution, Sahbi Atigue was one of four Ennahdha representatives to the High Commission for the Realization of the Goals of the Revolution, Political Reform, and Democratic Transition, and in the same year he ran in the Tunisian National Constituent Assembly in the 23 October elections.

He also ran for the Assembly of the Representatives of the People in the same constituency in the 26 October 2014 elections and won a seat from Ennahdha, and is considered a member of the World Union of Muslim Scholars.