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Ghannouchi sues Sky News Arabia for defamation

June 22, 2017 at 4:24 pm

The head of Tunisia’s Ennahda movement, Rachid Ghannouchi, has filed a lawsuit against Sky News Arabia over a news report linking him to the assassination of Tunisian trade union leader, Chokri Belaid.

A press release by Carter-Ruck, the legal firm representing Ghannouchi, said the report claimed falsely that politician was involved in the assassination of Belaid.

“Mr Ghannouchi is shocked by these allegations, which are utterly untrue and highly defamatory. There is absolutely no basis for suggesting that Mr Ghannouchi in any way facilitated this murder or that he was in any way associated with the terrorist group that is reported by Sky News Arabia to have committed the murder.”

Read: Ghannouchi calls on Tunisians to use dialogue to solve problems

According to the statement, Ghannouchi regrets that he is being forced to take legal action against the media outlet “but has no alternative other than to ensure that the record is set straight”.

The news report broadcasted by Sky News Arabia on 9 June claimed that documents and intelligence information showed in 2014, that entities funded by Qatar planned the assassination of leader of Unified Democratic Nationalist party, Belaid.

According to the report, the FBI later arrested Abu Anas Al-Libi who admitted that the head of Libya’s nationalist Al-Watan party, Abdelhakim Belhaj, was involved in coordination with Ghannouchi in the political assassinations in Tunisia.

Belaid was assassinated on 6 February 2013.