Tunisia: Ghannouchi’s son placed on detention list
Tunisian authorities on Thursday foiled a plot led by the son of Rached Ghannouchi, head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Ennahda movement and brother of a former presidential candidate, to cause chaos in the country.
Although the Tunisian security did not announce the identity of the two suspects who were arrested in Kasserine governorate, and who sought to finance the “chaos plan”, security sources said that the first suspect is Moaz Ghannouchi, the son of the president of the Ennahdha Movement of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Mouaz al-Ghannouchi, 41, is the head of Ghannouchi’s secret office and his father’s parliamentary companion and is also implicated in the Namaa case linked to terrorist acts.
According to the same sources, the second suspect is the brother of Yassine Chounoufi, a Tunisian businessman and candidate in the 2014 presidential elections.
According to the statement of the Tunisian Ministry of the Interior, two people were arrested in the governorate of Kasserine (central-western) in connection with the distribution of money to two others who admitted to receiving money for distribution in order to riot and provoke chaos by igniting tires and inflaming conditions in the neighborhoods of the city.
The Tunisian Interior Ministry also confirmed that money amounting to 4,720 Tunisian dinars ($1,200) was seized in the possession of the first and 1,320 dinars ($380) in the company of the second.
After obtaining permission from the Tunisian public prosecution, security forces raided and searched residential shops for the suspects and found 15,980 dinars ($5,000) in Tunisian currency and an amount of foreign currency not popular in the country.
Detailed confessions
The defendants confessed to receiving money from a resident of al-Nasr neighborhood in Ariana governorate, the brother of a former candidate in Tunisia’s 2014 presidential election who had previously been accused of money laundering and who, in turn, said he had recently met a Turkish citizen who was very close to a head of a political party at home.
According to security sources, the man is the brother of Tunisian businessman Yassine Chounoufi, who is running in the 2014 presidential elections.
The confessions revealed that the planning process to spread chaos was carried out at the instructions of the son of the head of the political party, who currently resides between Turkey and Britain. They promised to enable them to provide the necessary funding to inflame the situation in Tunisia, and to assign him to the Kasserine region, causing chaos, rioting, and inciting disobedience.
According to Tunisian security, one of the accused received 5,000 dinars, last Saturday morning, which is the date of the Brotherhood’s march in the center of the capital. He explained that the main suspect in the Al-Nasr district area of Ariana province was arrested, and his car was searched and 7,600 dinars were confiscated.
The decision of the Public Prosecution in the Court of First Instance in Kasserine included four people involved in planning to cause chaos, and the Tunisian police obtained permission to include the son of the head of the political party in question and the person close to him in an inspection and referral to it, on Thursday.
The Tunisian authorities launched their investigation into the “Namaa” case following a complaint filed by the defense committee for leftist leaders Chokri Belaid and nationalist Mohamed Brahmi, who were assassinated in 2013, accusing a charity of receiving funds from outside unknown sources.
In previous statements, Rida Al-Radawi, a member of the defense committee for Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi, said that an association was established in 2011 under the name “Namaa Tounes” and aimed at encouraging foreign investments. It was involved in the crimes of travel (sending young Tunisians to fight in conflict and war zones). Preliminary investigations were opened, which were soon pursued by the Ennahdha Brotherhood through its arm in the judiciary, and the investigation was stopped.
