Arrest warrant against a Tunisian researcher after TV appearance

Tunisian anti-terrorism investigating judge issued an arrest warrant and travel ban against researcher Badra Gaaloul, the director of the International Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies.

The decision came as a result of the accusations made by the researcher, during an interview with an Emirati TV station, against the Tunisian Minister of the Interior and Ennahdha Party.

In an interview on al-Ghad TV, Gaaloul said that the acting interior minister, Ghazi al- Jreibi, was involved in the recent terrorist attack in Tunisia, which caused the death of 9 soldiers. This was because, al-Jreibi, had – according to Gaaloul – excluded all the successful members and leaders of the Tunisian security forces in order to make way for the so-called “sons of Ghannouchi and Ennahdha ” to carry out the attack.

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Gaaloul added that the research team of the International Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies managed to “infiltrate Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigade, the terrorist faction responsible for the late attack in Jendouba and chanced upon a sound recording that confirmed that the brigade was preparing for a terrorist act following the dismissal of prominent figures in the Ministry of Interior, especially in the absence of the Chief of Counter-terrorism bureau affiliated to the National Guard”.

The researcher said that the Centre had provided the former Minister of Interior, Lotfi Brahem, with this information. As such, Brahem declared that all necessary measures and precautions were properly taken. However, he was fired to create a vacancy, enabling terrorists to carry out the attack, as she claimed.

Hence, on Sunday, the Daesh-aligned militant group Okba Ibn Nafaa claimed responsibility for the ambush that killed several members of the Tunisian National Guard in the north-western governorate of Jendouba.