TUNIS — A former justice minister and senior
figure in
Tunisia’s Islamist-inspired Ennahda party, under house arrest since
December, was released Tuesday but remains under investigation on “terrorism”
charges, the government said.
اضافة اعلان
Noureddine Bhiri had been detained by
plainclothes police officers on New Years’ Eve and placed under house arrest —
as was Ennahda staffer Fethi Baldi.
That came five months after President
Kais Saied sacked the Ennahda-backed government.
The 63-year-old Bhiri, who suffers from
diabetes, high blood pressure, and a heart condition, had been on a hunger
strike since he was detained.
He had agreed to undergo treatment for his
hypertension at a hospital in the northern city of Bizerte, where he has been
since the second day of his detention.
Ennahda confirmed he had been released,
publishing a video of Bhiri arriving by ambulance at his house in Tunis.
The party, which has repeatedly denied
Bhiri’s involvement in “terrorism”, had warned multiple times his life was in
danger.
Interior Minister
Taoufik Charfeddine said
Tuesday the men’s house arrest had “expired”, but added the judiciary would
“complete the necessary enquiries and judicial measures on their cases”.
Their release came a day after Saied
inaugurated a “temporary” council of judges, replacing an independent watchdog
he abolished weeks ago, saying it had been “infiltrated” by Ennahda.
The party has played a central role in
Tunisian politics since the revolution that overthrew dictator
Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.
But it has since become a principal target of
Saied, who in July sacked the government and froze the Ennahda-dominated
parliament, later moving to rule by decree.
While some Tunisians, tired of a system seen as corrupt, have
backed Saied’s moves, his opponents and civil society groups have voiced fears
of a slide back to the authoritarianism of Ben Ali.
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