The 82-year-old opposition chief has been in jail since final April on prices of incitement towards Kais Saied’s rule, which he denies.
Rached Ghannouchi, a distinguished opposition chief in Tunisia and the previous speaker of the nation’s parliament, has begun a three-day starvation strike behind bars, in solidarity with a fellow political prisoner and head of the opposition coalition Nationwide Salvation Entrance, Jaouher Ben Mbarek.
Ghannounchi has been imprisoned since final April on prices of incitement and plotting towards state safety, which the opposition determine and his supporters say are baseless. He’s a fierce critic of President Kais Saied.
The president has been accused by the opposition of accelerating authoritarianism and staging a coup when he dissolved parliament and dismissed the federal government in July 2021, governing by decree since.
The 82-year-old Ghannouchi, who’s the top of Tunisia’s self-described “Muslim Democrat” Ennahdha celebration, was parliament speaker from the 2019 election till Saied despatched tanks to close down the chamber in 2021.
He was sentenced in absentia to at least one 12 months in jail in Could, as he refused to look earlier than the judiciary, rejecting what he mentioned had been fabricated political trials.
#Ennahdha Assertion: @R_Ghannouchi on starvation strike in solidarity with Jaouhar Ben Mbarek and different political prisoners#Tunisia https://t.co/H3fe9eLYD4 pic.twitter.com/tbf9oAP1Qf
— Ennahdha Celebration (@EnnahdhaParty) September 29, 2023
An announcement by Ennahdha on Friday mentioned Ghannounchi will embark on a starvation strike demanding the discharge of all political prisoners and “ending the injustice towards them”.
The assertion expressed its solidarity with Ghannounchi and Jaouher Ben Mbarek, the top of the opposition coalition Nationwide Salvation Entrance, who started his personal starvation strike 4 days in the past, and held the authorities liable for “any hurt brought about to the well being and security of the prisoners on starvation strike”.
It additionally mentioned that a lot of the political prisoners have been imprisoned by the “coup authorities” with out trial or interrogated in “fabricated circumstances whose solely motive is to eradicate political rivals who oppose it”.
Ben Mbarek has spent greater than seven months in pre-trial detention, his lawyer Dalila Msaddek mentioned.
His starvation strike is in protest of the “judicial farce led by the investigative choose on the antiterrorism division”, Msaddek mentioned in a Fb submit.
Police have arrested greater than 20 political figures this 12 months, together with Ghannouchi, accusing a few of plotting towards state safety. Among the many arrested are attorneys, businessmen, and the top of a preferred radio station recognized for giving a platform to criticism of the president.
Ghannouchi’s lawyer mentioned the costs towards him stem from a funeral eulogy he gave final 12 months for a member of his Ennahdha celebration when he mentioned the deceased “didn’t worry a ruler or tyrant [and] solely feared God”.
Saied, who enshrined his new powers in a structure that handed by way of a controversial referendum with low turnout final 12 months, has denied his actions had been a coup and mentioned they had been wanted to save lots of Tunisia from years of chaos.
He has referred to as his critics criminals, traitors and “terrorists” and warned that any choose who freed them can be thought of abetting them.
Previous to the 2011 rebellion that eliminated former longtime chief Zine El Abidine Ben Ali from energy, Ghannouchi spent greater than 20 years in exile within the British capital London.
He returned to Tunisia in January 2011 to a triumphant welcome, and in October of that 12 months, Ennhadha gained 37 % of the vote within the parliamentary elections – the most important celebration win.
The celebration repeatedly carried out strongly in elections till Saied’s 2021 power-grab, and has since boycotted elections, together with nearly all of the nation’s opposition.