‘We have facts that will reverse the case of former Tunisia PM’ – Defence Authority

The Defence of former Tunisian Prime Minister, Ali Laarayedh, revealed that shocking facts will reverse his case and will be revealed in the coming days, after more than a month of his imprisonment in what is known as the “deportation to hotbeds of tension and terrorism” file.

Laarayedh was referred to the investigating judge last September; then his interrogation was postponed to 20 December, when it was decided to place him in prison, until the end of the investigation.

Laarayedh said, at the time, that he had resisted deportation since 2012, adding that “there are usually several reasons for immigration, between those who go to hotbeds of tension and those who study, and therefore I worked, as the Minister of the Interior, to follow up the file according to what the interest of the country dictates and what the law allows.”

He explained that what is happening is that the security forces are being used to crack down on the opponents, led by the Ennahda Movement, and many national leaders, stressing that the aim is to “to distract and cover up the major issues”.

In a statement to Arabi 21, a member of the defence team for the former Prime Minister, lawyer Samir Dilo, said that “An injustice is being done to Ali Laarayedh because his case has no facts that justify his imprisonment,” revealing that the judge decided to imprison him on the pretext that he “did not do what was necessary at the right time to confront the Salafist phenomenon, which intensified the phenomenon of deportation later.”

Dilo revealed that the defence team “will reveal facts in the coming days that will turn Laarayedh’s file upside down because what is happening to him is an injustice”, but he did not provide any more details due to the confidentiality of the investigation, as he put it.

He also denied the Judiciary’s refusal of the request to release former Interior Minister, Ali Laarayedh, explaining that “the request for release has not yet been considered, and the investigating judge said that he does not have the case file.”

Dilo criticised what he considered “the authority’s fabrication of cases after the 25 July, 2021 coup against its opponents, and the absence of any facts proving their involvement in such cases.”

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