The leader of the Tunisian Islamist party Ennahda, Rached Ghannouchi, arrested on Monday April 17, was placed in pre-trial detention yesterday. According to the Tunis prosecutor’s office, eleven other people, including Ghannouchi’s advisers and former party deputies, are being prosecuted in this case relating to a “conspiracy to undermine the internal security of the State”. Five of those accused were placed under judicial control.
The prosecutor’s office in Tunis made public yesterday in a press release the names of those prosecuted in the wake of the arrest of the leader of the Tunisian Islamist party Ennahda, Rached Ghannouchi. Eleven in number (thus twelve with Ghannouchi), the defendants are mainly among the close collaborators of the leader of Ennahda. There are, among others, Mohamed Al Qoumani, Abdallah Skhiri or Mohamed Chniba, to name a few.
These political figures of the Islamist party are being prosecuted for “conspiracy to undermine the internal security of the state” under, as indicated by the prosecution, articles 68 and 72 of the Tunisian penal code.
Article 68 stipulates that “is punished by five years’ imprisonment the author of the conspiracy formed with the aim of committing one of the attacks against the internal security of the State provided for in articles 63, 64 and 72 of this code” and that “the penalty is two years’ imprisonment if the conspiracy has not been followed by a preparatory act tending to the execution of the attack”.
If articles 63 and 64 concern the “attack” committed against the Head of State (death penalty for the attempt on life and fifteen years’ imprisonment for assault), article 72 stipulates that ‘ ‘Shall be punished with the death penalty the perpetrator of an attempt to change the form of government, to incite people to arm themselves against each other or to cause disorder, murder or looting on Tunisian territory”.
According to Tunisian media, Rached Ghannouchi was arrested on Monday following the broadcast showing him declaring that “Tunisia without political Islam and the left is a civil war project”.
The day after his arrest, the premises of the Ennahda party were sealed. The same applies to the national headquarters of the “Salvation Front” coalition.
