Pursued with Incitement Charges Against Belaïd… What Do You Know About Tunisian Brotherhood Figure Habib Ellouze?
The name of Habib Ellouze, a leader in the Ennahdha movement affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, classified by experts of terrorist organizations as the most dangerous in Tunisia, has resurfaced in light of a case related to a complaint filed by the defense of Chokri Belaïd and Mohamed Brahmi against the former public prosecutor of the Tunis Court of First Instance (the dismissed prosecutor who concealed the crimes of the Brotherhood) Bashir Al-Akrami.
The investigating judge of the judicial pole for combating terrorism decided to issue a decision to close the investigation in the case and refer it to the specialized indictment chamber for considering terrorism cases at the Tunis Court of Appeal.
After the unraveling of the threads of Belaïd’s assassination case after a full decade, a detention warrant was issued against Ellouze last March following a complaint filed against him by the defense in the case of the assassination of leaders Belaïd and Brahmi.
The judiciary had previously dismissed the case in which Ellouze was referred when the apparatus was under Brotherhood control, before it was recently reopened.
In late 2012, Ellouze incited against leftist leader Chokri Belaïd and spread unfounded allegations in an attempt to incite public opinion against him, after branding him an infidel.
Ellouze is the author of the famous statement “If I were young, I would go to Syria for jihad,” which led many Tunisian youths into extremism and terrorism, according to observers, and was a kind of password that opened the borders, during the reign of the Brotherhood, to a large number of youth who fell into extremism and became exporters of terrorism.
He is the most intellectually extremist Islamist and closest to the Salafist trend, which almost explains the convergence of his positions with those of the locally banned “Ansar al-Sharia” organization.
At the age of 70, he previously won a seat in the Transitional Parliament in 2011, and was a key polarization tool for terrorism and a feeder for the propaganda machine relying on convincing youth that they are facing a state hostile to Islam and religion.
Ellouze is considered one of the hawks of the religiously hardened Islamist trend and the most radical, and is known for his proximity to the banned locally “Ansar al-Sharia” organization, accused of assassinating Tunisian politicians Chokri Belaïd and Mohamed Brahmi in 2013, on the order of the Ennahdha Brotherhood movement.
He is also one of the first to call for the inclusion in the Tunisian constitution of an article recognizing the necessity of applying Sharia and considering it a fundamental legislative source in Tunisia, a position that has been strongly criticized and seen as an attempt to plunge the country into turmoil and exclude the other and undermine the civilization of the state.
Ellouze described female genital mutilation as a “cosmetic procedure for women,” sparking widespread outrage, and strongly criticized the government’s decision to close associations supporting terrorism.
In 2012, he addressed Salafists, saying “if the reign of Ennahdha ends, we will all return to prison,” which happened to him when he was caught in the whirlwind of accountability with others accused of terrorism, corruption, and threats to the security of Tunisia.
