The Tunisian Ennahda movement “strongly” condemned the “unjust” imprisonment of its president, Rashid Ghannouchi, stressing that the prison decision is a political decision par excellence, and that “abusing a national symbol like Ghannouchi will not save the country from its complex crises and will not discourage honorable opponents.”
In a speech recorded before his arrest and broadcast by the movement for the first time, Ghannouchi said, “The battle in Tunisia is between democracy and dictatorship that wants to confiscate the gains of the revolution,” noting that “the files filed against us are empty files with the testimony of jurists.”
He added, “The authority practices political targeting through judicial means, and the brutal coup pushes towards more calamities, and my arrest and the arrest of the activists will not solve the problems of the price rise.”
Earlier, lawyer Enas Harath, a member of the defense team for Ghannouchi – who was arrested on the pretext of making “inflammatory” statements – said that the investigating judge in the Court of First Instance in Tunis decided to issue a (imprisonment) decision against him.
Harath confirmed that the investigation session lasted more than 9 hours, between the investigation and the pleadings of the lawyers.
Hossam El-Din El-Jababli, a spokesman for the National Guard, said that the charges against Ghannouchi fall within criminal acts related to the assault intended to change the state.
Ghannouchi and other officials were arrested last Monday evening, following the issuance of an arrest warrant from the Public Prosecution Office, on the background of statements that the Ministry of Interior described as inflammatory.
The head of the opposition Salvation Front, Ahmed Najib al-Shabi, stated that Ghannouchi was taken to the hospital after his health deteriorated, hours after his arrest.
Ghannouchi’s official page on Facebook published a comment to him after his imprisonment decision, in which he said, “So decree whatever you are to decree. You can only decree for this worldly life. I am optimistic about the future, free Tunisia.”
“It was a political and unfair decision,” said lawyer Monia Bouali. “It was a ready-made decision. Ghannouchi was imprisoned because he expressed his opinion.”
On Tuesday, the Tunisian authorities banned meetings in all offices of the opposition Ennahda Party, and the police closed the headquarters of the opposition Salvation Front coalition, and the party said it feared that the decision was a prelude to banning it.
The Ennahda Movement had said last Monday evening that a security squad raided Ghannouchi’s house and took him to an unknown destination without respecting the simplest legal procedures, then announced that he was being interrogated in a security barracks in the capital.
The movement denounced what it described as a very dangerous development, and demanded the immediate release of Ghannouchi and an end to what it described as the permissibility of opposition political activists.
She said that she considers Rashid Ghannouchi kidnapped, noting that his lawyers were prevented from entering with him after he was taken to the investigation headquarters.
Ghannouchi said in a speech during a meeting of the opposition Salvation Front last week, “Tunisia without political Islam, Tunisia without the left or any other component, is a project for civil war,” adding, “Those who celebrated the coup are extremists and terrorists, and they are advocates of civil war.”
During the past months, Ghannouchi appeared repeatedly before the Public Prosecution Office in the context of investigations in cases related to corruption and terrorism.
