12 referred to Tunisian judiciary for ‘conspiracy against state security’

By Adel Al-Thabidi

TUNIS, Tunisia (AA) - Tunisia’s indictment chamber responsible for examining terrorism cases has decided to refer 12 defendants to the judiciary in a “conspiracy against state security" case, the spokesman for the Court of Appeal, said on Friday.

In a statement, Habib Tarkhani said that “the indictment chamber decided on Thursday to refer Mondher Ounissi, Ennahda's vice president; Rafik Abdessalem, a former foreign minister; Chahrazed Akacha, a journalist, Ennahda’s senior members: Ahmed Gaaloul, Tarek Boubahri, and Ridha Idriss; in addition to Moaz Al-Khereiji, son of the head of the Ennahda Movement Fathi Ayadi; Al-Karama Coalition Party senior leader Maher Zaid, and blogger Mohamed Al-Samiti.”

“Except for Ounissi, all the defendants are fugitives and are under the attention of the criminal department that handles terrorism cases at the Tunisian Court of First Instance,” the official said.

Tarkhani stated that all the defendants will be prosecuted on multiple terrorism-related charges.

Last September, an investigating judge at the Anti-Terrorism Judicial Pole issued a detention order for Ounissi, following a leaked audio recording attributed to him.

He was charged with failing to report terrorist crimes, and establishing connections with foreign entities to harm state interests, according to the Tunisian official news agency.

Tunisia has been in the throes of a deep political crisis that has aggravated the country's economic conditions since 2021 when Saied ousted the government and dissolved parliament.

• Writing by Ikram Kouachi