Tunisia's Ennahda Shura Council Chairman Placed Under House Arrest

3 Sept 2023 (Anatolia) The opposition Tunisian Salvation Front announced that the country's security authorities have placed Ennahda Shura Council Chairman Abdelkarim Harouni under house arrest.

The Front said in a statement on Saturday evening that it had "learned that a security squad informed Abdel Karim Harouni, head of Ennahda's Shura Council, that he is under house arrest starting tonight (Saturday)."

"The decision comes before the Shura Council convenes on Sunday, September 3, to consider the issue of the movement's (general) conference this fall," she said.

Describing the decision as "arbitrary", she said it "comes in the context of arresting the historical leaders of Ennahda, closing all its headquarters and threatening its cadres and activists".

"This new step is an episode targeting democracy and freedoms in Tunisia and an attempt to interfere in the internal life of parties and influence their sovereign decisions," the front said.

It expressed its "full solidarity with Abdelkarim Harouni and Ennahda".

Since February, Tunisia has been witnessing a campaign of arrests that included media professionals, activists, judges, businessmen and politicians, including Ennahda leader Rached Ghannouchi and a number of the movement's leaders, including Ali Larayedh, Noureddine Bhiri and Sayed Ferjani.

Tunisian President Kais Saied accused some of those arrested of "conspiring against state security and being behind the crises of distributing goods and rising prices", accusations that the opposition denies.

While Saied stressed the independence of the judicial authorities, the opposition accuses him of using the judiciary to prosecute those who reject exceptional measures that began to be imposed on July 25, 2021, including the dissolution of parliament, in which Ennahda had the largest parliamentary bloc.

Opponents consider the exceptional measures "a coup against the revolution constitution (the 2014 constitution) and a consecration of absolute autocracy," while Saied, whose presidential term ends in 2024, said they were "necessary and legal" to save the state from "total collapse."