Rached Ghannouchi, the 82-year-old leader of the Tunisian opposition party Ennahdha, has commenced a hunger strike on Monday, as confirmed by his Islamist-inspired party.
Ghannouchi, who has been incarcerated since April last year, embarked on the hunger strike “in solidarity” with fellow prisoners who are also refraining from food, Ennahdha stated in a released statement.
The hunger strike is intended to express support for all political opponents detained in various prisons across Tunisia, the party emphasised.
As one of the most prominent opposition figures in Tunisia, Ghannouchi’s imprisonment dates back to President Kais Saied’s actions in July 2021, when he dissolved parliament and assumed full state authority.
Ennahdha had been a dominant force in Tunisian politics following the 2011 uprising that ousted Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s dictatorship and marked the onset of the Arab Spring movements in the region.
Ghannouchi was recently sentenced to three years in prison for allegedly receiving illicit “foreign” funding for his organisation, adding to a prior one-year terrorism-related sentence handed down in May last year, which was subsequently extended to 15 months on appeal in October.
The basis for the latest verdict stemmed from comments made by Ghannouchi during the funeral of an Ennahdha official in early 2022, where he declared that he fears neither the powerful nor the tyrants, alluding to the police, as detailed in the prosecution’s case file.
Over the past year, President Saied has imprisoned more than 20 opposition politicians, businessmen, and other individuals branded as “terrorists.”
Several incarcerated opposition figures, including Jawhar Ben Mbarek and Issam Chebbi from the National Salvation Front, Tunisia’s primary opposition coalition, have been on a hunger strike for eight days to demand their release.
These actions echo similar protests held in September, where jailed politicians protested against what they deemed “unsubstantiated, arbitrary prosecutions” and an attempt to sideline the opposition, with the majority of charges levelled against them revolving around conspiracy against state security.