Top Tunisian opposition figure accused of sending ISIS to Syria arrested

QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Tunisian security units arrested on Monday leader of Ennahda opposition party and former president of parliament, Rached Ghannouchi.

Police forces raided and searched Ghannouchi’s house and took him to an “unknown destination,” his party said in a statement.

Ghannoushi had stated before in a meeting that “Tunisia without Ennahda, without political Islam, without the left, or any other component, is a project for civil war.”

After arresting Ghannoushi, the police raided and evacuated the headquarters of the Ennahda party, where party officials said the police showed a judicial warrant for a search that “would take days.”

Riadh Chaibi, a senior party official, told Reuters, “It is an attempt to hit Ennahda and opposition parties. We have a fear that it will be a prelude to a freeze on the party.”

Ghannouchi, who returned to Tunisia during the revolution in 2011 after being exiled in the 1990s,  is one of the most prominent opposition figures of President Kais Saied since he seized broad powers in Tunisia, and was the president of the parliament that was dissolved by Saied in 2022.

In 2022, the opposition leader was repeatedly questioned in court on charges of terrorism, including “recruiting Jihadists ” and helping them travel from Tunisia to Syria and Iraq.

He was also investigated over cases of corruption and money laundering, accusations denied by his party.

Reporting by Stella Youssef