Former Tunisian Minister of Justice Noureddine Bhiri, a strongman of the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, was transferred in critical condition to the hospital in Bizerte (north) two days after his arrest, said Sunday activists of this movement and deputies.
Arrested on Friday morning, Mr. Bhiri, 63, “is in critical condition, he is in intensive care at Bougatfa hospital in Bizerte,” said lawyer and MP Samir Dillow.
After more than two days of silence, Rached Ghannouchi, head of Ennahdha and to whom Mr. Bhiri is considered close, broadcast on Sunday evening a letter he addressed to President Kais Saied, imputing to him “the responsibility of revealing his condition. , to reassure his family and public opinion ”.
He stressed that after reports of Mr. Bhiri’s “deteriorating state of health”, President Saied should “allow a medical team and his lawyers to visit him and release him immediately.”
Ennahdha has been at the heart of a standoff with President Kais Saied since his July 25 coup and his decision to suspend the parliament that the party had controlled for ten years.
MP and former Secretary of State Saida Ounissi denounced on Twitter that Mr. Bhiri was being held “in an undisclosed location, without any warrant of arrest, indictment or judicial authorization.”
During a press conference in Tunis, Mondher Ounissi, doctor and member of the executive board of Ennahdha, indicated that Mr. Bhiri suffered from several chronic diseases, including diabetes and hypertension, and usually took “16 tablets per day”.
He was “deprived of his medication” and “his life is threatened”, he assured, calling on “the Red Crescent and international organizations to intervene” in the face of “inhuman practices”.
In a statement, Said Ferjani, a member of Ennahdha’s leadership and close to Mr. Bhiri, denounced “a really dangerous situation for Tunisia and the region” when one sees “a former minister treated in this way”. He said his condition was “really critical after three days without eating, drinking, and taking medication.”
On Saturday, the Torture Prevention Authority (INPT, independent authority) and the Ennahdha party had already protested and worried about the fate of Mr. Bhiri and another Ennahdha leader, Fathi Baldi, also arrested. Friday.
The INPT and Bhiri’s defense committee denounced the secrecy surrounding their place of detention and the lack of explanation from the Interior Ministry, which ordered the two arrests.
The ministry had confined itself Friday evening to announcing two house orders, without giving names, indicating a “preventive measure dictated by the need to preserve national security”.
On Friday, Bhiri’s defense committee called his arrest outside his home by plainclothes agents a “kidnapping and [a] dangerous precedent marking the country’s entry into the dictatorship tunnel.”
