International support for Tunisia’s jailed opposition leader Ghannouchi

Marking the first anniversary of the arrest of Tunisia’s prominent opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi, an international committee has formed to raise awareness of the imprisonment of the 82-year-old, now the “oldest prisoner of conscience in the Arab world”.

The International Committee for Solidarity with Rached Ghannouchi said the group has been formed by “statesmen and women and intellectuals from around the world” who are dedicated to the release of the imprisoned Ennahdha party leader and former speaker of Tunisia’s parliament. “Rached Ghannouchi was unjustly detained at his home on the night of April 17, 2023, corresponding to the twenty-seventh night of Ramadan, without any regard to the sanctity of his home, age, or status, during the holiest month in the Islamic calendar,” the committee said in a statement.

“His alleged crime? A speech at a public event held by the opposition National Salvation Front where he criticized the dissolution of the elected parliament, suspension of democratic institutions and illegitimate suspension of the constitution since July 25, 2021,” the committee said.

A vocal critic of Tunisia’s increasingly powerful President Kais Saied, Ghannouchi became the highest-profile figure to be arrested in the continuing consolidation of power by Saied who was elected in 2019 and has overseen a wave of repression and legal reforms that have expanded his rule as president. “Rached Ghannouchi was unjustly detained at his home on the night of April 17, 2023, corresponding to the twenty-seventh night of Ramadan, without any regard to the sanctity of his home, age, or status, during the holiest month in the Islamic calendar,” the committee said in a statement.

“His alleged crime? A speech at a public event held by the opposition National Salvation Front where he criticized the dissolution of the elected parliament, suspension of democratic institutions and illegitimate suspension of the constitution since July 25, 2021,” the committee said.

A vocal critic of Tunisia’s increasingly powerful President Kais Saied, Ghannouchi became the highest-profile figure to be arrested in the continuing consolidation of power by Saied who was elected in 2019 and has overseen a wave of repression and legal reforms that have expanded his rule as president. Critics say such developments risk returning Tunisia to the authoritarian state that was swept aside in the 2011 toppling of longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali – a key moment in what would become known as the start of the “Arab Spring”.