The “Black Room” Engulfs Tunisia’s Muslim Brotherhood… Judicial Decision against the “Leader” and Key Figures

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The violations committed during their years in power are now tightening the noose around Tunisia’s Muslim Brotherhood, a movement that is today paying a steep price for a dark decade stained with blood and extremism.

On Friday, the Tunisian judiciary rejected requests to release several leaders of the Islamist Ennahdha movement and senior security officials implicated in the so-called “Black Room” case at the Ministry of the Interior.

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The criminal chamber of the First Instance Court in the Ariana Governorate (Tunis suburbs) rejected requests for the release of several detainees in the case, postponing its review until next March.

Among the key figures implicated in this case are Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of Tunisia’s Muslim Brotherhood, along with other prominent Ennahdha members and high-ranking security officials, including the former head of Tunisian intelligence and the chief of the counter-terrorism unit in El-Gorjani, central Tunis.

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The investigating judge had already issued detention orders against Ghannouchi and former security officials who held senior positions in the Interior Ministry’s intelligence services and counter-terrorism unit.

A judicial arrest warrant was also issued against Mustapha Khadr, who is currently on the run abroad and is being prosecuted in this case.

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The “Black Room”

This case involves documents that were secretly transferred from a driving school owned by Mustapha Khadr, who is suspected of leading the Brotherhood’s secret apparatus, to the Ministry of the Interior, without a seizure report or notifying the judicial police unit or the investigating judge handling the case.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s secret apparatus is suspected of being responsible for political assassinations and other major crimes, according to investigation reports into the killings of politicians Chokri Belaïd and Mohamed Brahmi.

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The existence of this secret room was only officially acknowledged after the investigating judge in the Brahmi assassination case visited the Ministry of the Interior and seized numerous cardboard boxes and bags containing a vast amount of documents.

These documents were later transferred to the Judicial Pole for Counter-Terrorism on November 13, 2018.

Based on the findings, the investigating judge in charge of the Belaïd and Brahmi cases charged Mustapha Khadr with premeditated murder in the Brahmi case, along with 22 additional charges.

At the time, the defense committee for Belaïd and Brahmi revealed that the judge had found documents linked to Ennahdha’s secret organization and political assassinations.

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Among these documents was evidence related to Mohamed Al-Awadi, the military chief of Ansar Al-Sharia, who was accused of Brahmi’s assassination. One document recommended that he be provided with a security escort to facilitate his escape from Tunisia.

The judge also discovered two lists of criminals with their phone numbers, including Amer Al-Balazi, accused of involvement in the Belaïd and Brahmi assassinations, who had allegedly thrown the murder weapons into the sea. Mustapha Khadr admitted his connection to Amer Al-Balazi.

The defense committee had previously asserted that Ennahdha had a covert organization involved in political assassinations, led by Mustapha Khadr, who was later smuggled out of the country.

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