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On this file photograph taken on February 21, 2013 Tunisian justice minister and candidate for the submit of prime minister, Noureddine Bhiri speaks to journalists as he arrives for a gathering at Ennahda ruling occasion’s headquarters in Tunis. Plainclothes officers in Tunisia’s capital on December 31, 2021 arrested Noureddine Bhiri, Ennahdha’s deputy occasion president and a former justice minister. The occasion condemned the arrest as a “harmful precedent”.
FETHI BELAID / AFP
- Noureddine Bhiri of the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha occasion was hospitalised days after his arrest on Friday.
- Tunisia was the one democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring revolts of a decade in the past.
- Bhiri is reportedly refusing meals and drugs.
Detained Tunisian ex-justice minister Noureddine Bhiri of the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha occasion, who’s refusing meals or remedy after his switch to hospital, is suspected of “terrorism”, the inside minister mentioned Monday.
Bhiri, deputy president of Ennahdha – seen by President Kais Saied as an enemy – was arrested by plainclothes officers Friday and his whereabouts have been initially unknown.
Ennahdha had performed a central position in Tunisian politics till an influence seize by President Kais Saied final 12 months.
Tunisia was the one democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring revolts of a decade in the past, however civil society teams and Saied’s opponents have expressed concern of a slide again to authoritarianism a decade after the revolution that toppled longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
“There have been fears of acts of terrorism focusing on the nation’s safety and we needed to act,” Inside Minister Taoufik Charfeddine mentioned late Monday of the arrest.
A member of a delegation that visited Bhiri in hospital instructed AFP on Monday that he was refusing meals or remedy.
On Sunday activists and a former Ennahdha legislator mentioned Bhiri was in a important situation and dealing with dying.
However the supply instructed AFP that Bhiri, 63, is “not in important situation in the intervening time”.
The supply, asking to not be named, mentioned {that a} joint crew from Tunisia’s impartial anti-torture group INPT and the United Nations rights fee visited Bhiri at hospital within the northern city of Bizerte on Sunday.
He’s “vigorous and lucid”, and being saved below shut statement in a non-public room of the hospital’s cardiology ward.
‘Kidnapping’ cost
Since Friday, nevertheless, Bhiri has “refused to take any meals or remedy, prompting his switch to hospital” two days later, the supply mentioned.
Samir Dilou, a lawyer and ex-Ennahdha MP, condemned Bhiri’s arrest as “political” and an abuse of the justice system.
He instructed a Tunis information convention that he’s lodging a “kidnapping” cost in opposition to Saied and the inside minister Charfeddine.
The inside minister mentioned late Monday that proof had been despatched to the justice ministry concerning Bhiri’s actions, however that the prosecution “delayed” motion on the matter.
This, Charfeddine mentioned, prompted him to “rapidly apply… judicial management” over Bhiri, in a context the place he was suspected of “falsifying” identification papers, together with for a Syrian lady.
The inside minister mentioned he had “personally verified” that the detainee was being “handled effectively”.
Bhiri’s spouse, Saida Akremi, additionally a lawyer, instructed reporters he had suffered “a coronary heart assault”, and that she was being denied entry to him as a result of she refused to signal paperwork as demanded by safety providers.
Mondher Ounissi, a physician and member of Ennahdha’s govt bureau, mentioned Sunday that Bhiri suffers from a number of persistent sicknesses, together with diabetes and hypertension.
He has been “disadvantaged of his remedy” and “his life is threatened”, Ounissi mentioned, including that Bhiri normally takes 16 tablets a day.
READ | Detained Tunisian politician hospitalised ‘in important situation’
The inside ministry on Friday mentioned that two people had been ordered below home arrest, with out figuring out them.
It mentioned the transfer was a “safety measure dictated by the necessity to protect nationwide safety”.
The anti-torture group INPT has recognized the second particular person detained as Fathi Baldi, a former inside ministry official.
The president “bears full duty for the lifetime of Mr Bhiri”, the anti-Saied group “Residents in opposition to the coup” mentioned Sunday on Twitter.
It mentioned he had been “rushed to the hospital in a really severe situation”.
Saied on July 25 sacked the Ennahdha-supported authorities and suspended parliament, presenting himself as the final word interpreter of the structure.
He later took steps to rule by decree, and in early December vowed to press on with reforms to the political system.
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