Key Names in the Muslim Brotherhood Security Apparatus… Former Tunisian Intelligence Chief Faces Arrest Warrant
After Tunisian President Kais Saied reclaimed control of the country’s government institutions (parliament, government, and presidency) from the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood, which had dominated them for a decade, the Tunisian judiciary has begun drying up the sources of the Brotherhood in most administrations where the organization’s influence lingered.
The Tunisian judiciary is currently holding the organization and its branches accountable for the “black decade.” The investigating judge of the “Judicial Counter-Terrorism Pole” (a specialized court) issued an arrest warrant against the former head of intelligence, Mohriz Zoari, in the case of “conspiring against the security of the state.”
The official spokesperson for the “Counter-Terrorism Pole,” Hanan Qaddas, stated: “Zoari, who was wanted, was arrested and presented to the investigating judge, who heard his testimony and issued a detention order against him in the conspiracy case.”
Zoari previously held the position of Director of Special Services (intelligence) at the Ministry of Interior during the rule of the Ennahdha Islamist movement. In 2022, the investigating judge had previously issued a detention order against him in a case related to traveling to conflict zones, before he was released at the end of the same year.
Zoari is considered one of the prominent figures in the security apparatus of the Ennahda movement. When he was in office, he hid an American document warning of the assassination of nationalist parliamentarian Mohamed Brahmi in 2013.
As the head of the Tunisian intelligence agency, Mohriz Zoari recruited a group of 20 people, an unregistered security group in the official records of the Ministry of Interior. He assigned a person to supervise the training of these elements in martial arts, and they were involved in the assassination of Chokri Belaid and other terrorist crimes.
The details of the case go back to June of last year when Tunisian authorities announced the dismantling of a Brotherhood plot to overthrow President Kais Saied‘s rule by infiltrating the presidential palace. This was done with the help of Nadia Akacha, the former director of the presidential office who held this position when Saied arrived at the Carthage Palace.
At that time, the investigation office of the Counter-Terrorism Pole opened an investigation into a new case related to “conspiring against the security of the state” against a group led by former Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, former General Director of National Security Kamel El-Gazani, former intelligence director Mohriz Zoari, Ennahdha leader Rachid Ghannouchi, and his son Mehdi Ghannouchi.
The investigations also included Brotherhood leaders Ali Larayedh and Lotfi Zitoun, along with Nadia Akacha, the former director of the presidential office who fled abroad, Mohriz Zoari, the former director at the Ministry of Interior, Abdelkarim El-Obaidi, and Mustafa Kheder, implicated in the assassination cases of leftist leaders Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi in 2013.
Kamel El-Bedoui, a former member of the Ennahda movement who is also accused in the conspiracy case, is part of the “Baraka al-Sahil” group, and he is also accused in the secret apparatus case of the Ennahdha movement. He supervised security at the home of Rachid Ghannouchi.
