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Tunisia’s Ghannouchi to appear before court in 'state security' case

November 10, 2022 at 1:15 pm

Tunisian Parliament Speaker Rashid Ghannouchi in Tunis, Tunisia on 18 January 2020 [Yassine Gaidi/Anadolu Agency]

The head of Tunisia’s Ennahda Movement, Rashid Ghannouchi, will appear before a court in the Instalingo case, his lawyer announced yesterday.

Sami Al-Tariqi told IFM that Ghannouchi had received a “summons last week to appear before the investigating judge at the Sousse 2 Tribunal in the Instalingo case.”

“Ghannouchi will, of course, be present in court tomorrow, but the accusation does not settle until after it is directed by the investigating judge,” Al-Tariqi added.

There are currently 32 defendants in the Instalingo case in Tunisia and a number of the company’s employees have been detained and charged with “committing a dangerous act against the head of state”, “conspiracy against the internal security of the state” and espionage.

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The investigations included several journalists, bloggers, freelancers and politicians such as Ghannouchi, his daughter and son-in-law Rafik Abdessalem, and the former official spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, Mohamed Ali Aroui.

The 81-year old head of the Islamist Ennahda Party, who was the speaker of the dissolved Tunisian parliament, has repeatedly denied all the charges against him and said they are “politically motivated.”

Instalingo’s defence team has said it considers “the case filed against it as political, aiming to liquidate political figures.”