Tunisia detains Ennahda deputy chief Ali Laarayedh

TUNIS, Tunisia (AA) – Tunisian judicial authorities have detained Ennahda deputy leader Ali Laarayedh after an investigation into terrorism accusations, according to his defense lawyer.

Laarayedh and Ennahda chief Rached Ghannouchi were questioned on Monday on suspicions of sending Tunisians to conflict zones overseas to engage in violent activities.

“The detention of Laarayedh is unfortunate and scandalous after 15 hours of investigation,” lawyer Samir Dilou stated.

It is expected that Laarayedh, a former interior minister, will appear before a judge on Wednesday.

Ghannouchi, meanwhile, is expected to be questioned on the same accusations later.

Ennahda movement, for its part, decried the circumstances of the investigation as “a form of torture and abuse on fabricated accusations.”

Arrest warrants were also issued against three former security officials, former parliamentarian Reda al-Jawadi, businessman Mohamed Frikha and cleric Bechir ben Hasan.

The Ennahda party termed the warrants as “random arrests” aimed at defaming the image of the party and its figures.

Tunisia has been in the throes of a deep political crisis that aggravated the country’s economic conditions since last year, when President Kais Saied ousted the government and dissolved parliament.

While Saied insists that his measures were meant to “save” the country, critics have accused him of orchestrating a coup.

The Ennahda Party is the largest political group in the country, headed by Ghannouchi on a progressive Islamic reformist agenda. The current leader Kais Saied whose seizure of power is decried as a coup by Tunisian politicians, is determined to marginalize and disempower the group in his bid to prolong his power grab.