Tunis: Tunisian former justice minister Nouredin Bhiri of the Islamist-inspired Ennahda party, who is refusing food or medicine after being transferred to a hospital, is suspected of “terrorism”, the interior minister said on Monday.
Ennahda’s vice president Bhiri – viewed by President Kais Saied as an enemy – was arrested Friday by plainclothes officers and his whereabouts were initially unknown.
Ennahda played a central role in Tunisian politics until President Kais Saied seized power last year. Tunisia was the only democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring uprisings of a decade earlier, but civil society groups and Saeed’s opponents expressed fear of turning to authoritarianism a decade after the revolution that ousted longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. has done.
Regarding the arrest, Interior Minister Tawfiq Charfedine said, “There were apprehensions of terrorist acts targeting the security of the country and we had to act.”
A member of a delegation that visited the hospital said on Monday that he was refusing food or medicine.
On Sunday, activists and a former MLA from Ennahda said that Bhiri’s condition was critical and he was facing death.
But the source told AFP that 63-year-old Bhiri “is not in critical condition at the moment.”
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a joint team from Tunisia’s independent anti-atrocities group INPT and the UN Rights Commission visited Bhiri on Sunday at a hospital in the northern city of Bizarte. He is “lively and candid” and is being kept under strict observation in a private room in the cardiology ward of the hospital.
The source said that since Friday, however, Bhiri has refused to take any food or medicine “to be transferred to the hospital” two days later.
Lawyer and former Ennahda MP Samir Dilou called Bhiri’s arrest “political” and an abuse of the justice system. He told a Tunis news conference that he was filing “kidnapping” charges against Sayed and Interior Minister Charfedine.
The Home Minister said late on Monday that evidence regarding Bhiri’s activities had been sent to the Justice Ministry, but the prosecution delayed action in the matter.
This, Charfedine said, prompted him to “quickly …
The minister said he had “personally verified” that the detainee was being “treated well.”
Bhiri’s wife, Saeeda Akremi, who is also a lawyer, told reporters that she had suffered a “heart attack” and was being denied access to her because she refused to sign documents demanded by the security services. Had done it.
Mondher Aunisi, a doctor and member of the executive bureau of Enhadha, said on Sunday that Bhiri is suffering from several chronic diseases including diabetes and high blood pressure.
“He has been denied his medicine” and “his life is in danger,” Onisi said, adding that Bhiri usually takes 16 pills a day.
The Home Ministry said on Friday that two persons have been ordered to be placed under house arrest without identifying them.
It said the move was a “preventive measure determined by the need to preserve national security”.
Anti-atrocities group INPT has identified the second person detained as Fathi Baldi, a former Home Ministry official.
The anti-Saeed group “against the civilian coup” said on Twitter on Sunday that the president “takes full responsibility for Mr. Bhiri’s life.”
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