Tunisian parliament leader Rached Ghannouchi summoned for questioning

Member of the defense committee for the dissolved Tunisian Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi, Samir Dilou, said: The charges against his client and several MPs “may carry the death penalty”.

Ghannouchi and the deputies upheld Article 68 of the constitution, which absolves parliamentarians from all accountability for what they do during their parliamentary work, during an investigation by the anti-terrorism unit on charges of “conspiracy against state security”, he told Al Jazeera Mubasher.

Dilou pointed out that Ghannouchi and his colleagues were referred to the investigation under article 72 of the Tunisian Criminal Code, which punishes the death penalty, considering that the issue is political and has nothing to do with the public hearing.

Last Friday, Ghannouchi appeared before the Terrorism Crimes Investigation Unit, accompanied by more than 30 members of parliament who participated in the virtual plenary session of former MPs, on the suspicion of forming a consensus in order to conspire against the internal security of the state.

The Court of First Instance in Tunis issued a decision in early January referring the head of the Renaissance Brotherhood Movement, Rached Ghannouchi, to the Criminal Department, to commit electoral crimes.

Ghannouchi’s referral to the criminal court, along with Youssef Chahed, Nabil Karoui and Abdelkarim Zbidi, comes as part of a campaign by the Tunisian government to fight political corruption and support terrorism.

The two were referred on several charges; these include violating political advertising laws, failing to disclose campaign finances, and other electoral law offenses.