The placement in police custody of Rached Ghannouchi comes as authoritarian excesses are increasingly worrying the international community. Here is the sequence of events and the Tunisian political context.
The leader of the Islamist movement and conservative was arrested in the north of Tunis, Monday, April 17, at his home at the time of iftar, the meal for breaking the fast, a few hours before the celebration by Muslims of the sacred night of destiny, one of the nights of the end of Ramadan. According to the Ennahda party, Rached Ghannouchi was taken for questioning to a national guard barracks.
The place and reason for the arrest are not known.
His entourage assures that the police have not presented any document to justify this arrest. The authorities, for the moment, have not communicated on the place of this police custody which can last 48 hours without the presence of a lawyer, then be extended up to two weeks. This absence of information makes the Islamist party say that Rached Ghannouchi has been kidnapped. The reason for this arrest is also not officially announced. The arrest of the leader of Ennahdha would be linked to his declarations on “a civil war that would threaten Tunisia” in case political Islam is eliminated from public life.
A series of arrests that also affects the media
This is not the first time that Rached Ghannouchi has had trouble with the power of President Kaïs Saïed. Last year, he was heard twice for a case related to the alleged dispatch of jihadists to Syria and Iraq and for suspicion of corruption. His resounding arrest on Monday is in line with the legal offensive carried out in recent months against opponents, former ministers and businessmen, and which had also led to the imprisonment of the boss of the first private radio station in the country, FM mosaic.
Enhadha decried by part of the population
This arrest shows a strengthening of the authoritarian character of the regime by targeting an emblematic politician, even if it is not unanimous. Rached Ghannouchi, who spent 20 years in exile in London, was greeted triumphantly on his return to Tunisia in 2011 after the fall of Ben Ali. But his detractors accuse him of political opportunism and variable geometry convictions. First close to the Muslim Brotherhood, the leader of Enhadha then claimed the Turkish Islamic conservative model, that of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The party now presents itself as a Muslim democratic movement.
“I think that we cannot currently directly incriminate the Head of State for this arrest, even if everything suggests that he is obviously the instigator, estimated Jérôme Heurtaux, research professor in political science and specialist in Tunisia. Rached Ghannouchi embodies, almost paradoxically, what part of the Tunisian population and the president call ‘the excesses of the Tunisian political transition'”.
A weakened Tunisian opposition
The researcher recalls that after the elections of October 23, 2011 marked by a massive participation, Ennhadha was the main political actor of the Troika in power. “The Islamist party has also participated in forms of government, in coalitions after 2014, continues Jérôme Heurtaux. And so, in a way, he represents, as one of the main actors, this period that Kaïs Saïed continues to decry, to disqualify as being the source of all the evils from which Tunisia would suffer today. .
This speech resonates with part of the population, adds this specialist in Tunisia: “Kaïs Saïed succeeded in bringing together around him a certain number of actors, citizens who until then were in complete disagreement”. Tunisians who believe that the authoritarian president has put an end to political Islamism or that he is fighting against corruption. “It must be recognized that even if the opponents demonstrate – there is a National Salvation Front which has been formed – but they are extremely weakened in the current situation”, points out Jérôme Heurtaux.