Ennahda's deputy chief prevented from entering the US

The deputy chief of Tunisian Islamist movement Ennahda, Abdelfattah Mourou, announced on Wednesday that he has been prevented from travelling to the US.

Anadolu news agency reported that Mourou was invited to attend a conference organised by Palestinian-Americans in Chicago, but in transit he was asked to leave the plane for unknown reasons that he expects are “administrative” only.

Mourou told Tunisian radio that: “The Tunisian security took my wife and I off the plane, which was heading to Germany and then to the United States.”

He said that the Tunisian security at first told him that the German authorities had refused him, but later on he was informed that it was the US that had done so.

“It is clear that it is an administrative problem,” he said, according to Anadolu. “I do not expect it is political, and I do not want to create ambiguities or make any suggestions that this is the US’s position towards the Tunisian political Islam and Ennahda.”

Mourou said that he had visited the US more than ten times in the past.

The American embassy in Tunis has stated that it did not have any information on the ban.

Mourou further pointed out that he has not been listed on any of the American blacklists, noting his visa is valid and the embassy is working on resolving the situation.