Tunisia: Former health minister sues newspaper accusing him of smuggling weapons to Libya

Former Minister of Health and leader in the Tunisian Ennahda Movement Abdellatif Mekki has decided to sue a local newspaper that accused him of smuggling weapons to Libya.

Mekki posted on his Facebook page: “Al-Chourouk newspaper published today a third of a page without mentioning who wrote it, claiming that I smuggled Turkish weapons to Libya as medicine shipments when I served as health minister in 2020. Didn’t you know, liar, that exporting medicines is the speciality of the private sector under the law and it is supervised by the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Health has nothing to do with that? Oh ignorant. Didn’t you know, liar, that you are thus accusing the entire health sector (who received what, who sent what, etc.)?”

Addressing the newspaper, he added: “Don’t you know, liar, that you are accusing the Tunisian Customs and the security forces that they did not detect the weapons shipment on the borders? You are the newspaper that conspired against the dreams of Tunisians with the fallen tyrannical regimes. You greatly contributed to making the Tunisian media rank 223 globally in terms of news credibility. This is not the first time, as it is your area of expertise. I will sue you, liar. You lie and you know you are lying.”

Mekki’s post comes within the framework of a “war of rumours” that Ennahda says is being exposed by some media outlets, recently targeting the movement’s leaders. Thus, Rached Ghannouchi’s advisor denied rumours about the deterioration of the movement’s president’s health and about being placed under house arrest following the exceptional decisions taken by President Kais Saied.

The movement’s deputies also denied false news published by certain media outlets about establishing illegal associations linked to foreign parties.

READ: Ennahda official challenges leadership over need to involve younger generation