Tunisia: party has ‘no information’ about leader’s arrest in Algeria 

The deputy leader of the Heart of Tunisia bloc in the Tunisian parliament, Osama Al-Khelaifi, has said that the party has no information about the arrest of its leader, apparently, in Algeria, Anadolu has reported. Al-Khelaifi told IFM radio on Monday that the party didn’t even know if Nabil Karoui is in the neighbouring North African state.

The party official pointed out that, in any case, although Karoui was being prosecuted in Tunisia, the travel ban imposed on him has been lifted. This means that he is no longer wanted by the Tunisian judiciary.

According to a report on Mosaïque FM on Sunday, “Algerian border guards arrested Nabil Karoui and his brother, Ghazi Karoui MP, in an apartment belonging to the brother of a former [unnamed] Algerian MP in the Tebessa region.”\

READ: Algeria arrests former Tunisia presidential candidate

As of Monday evening, neither the Tunisian nor Algerian authorities had issued a statement regarding Karoui’s arrest.

In August 2019, the Tunisian authorities arrested Karoui on charges of “financial corruption”. He was released on bail after about two months. A few months later, in December 2019, a court sentenced him to serve time in jail on the same charge, although the duration of the imprisonment was not specified.

Karoui is a businessman and was a candidate in the Tunisian presidential election of September 2019.