London, England – Tunisia’s intensifying crackdown on opposition leaders and critics is putting society at risk and risking a return to autocracy, years after demonstrations in the North African country were credited with sparking a revolutionary chain reaction throughout the region, a group of experts, activists and relatives of those arrested warned.
On Monday, Rached Ghannouchi, the chairman of Ennahdha who was arrested in April, was jailed in absentia after being found guilty of incitement.
His party, a self-styled “Muslim Democrat” movement, had emerged in 2011 as the largest group in the first parliamentary elections after the ouster of protest-hit Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, winning 37% of the vote. votes
But since taking power in 2021, President Kais Saied, who ran as an independent social conservative, has put pressure on Ennahdha politicians and their critics.
Since February, more than 20 dissidents, activists, journalists and opposition figures have been arrested.
Those arrested have been charged with various charges, some related to security, but activists and experts have said the charges are often false and that Saied is simply going after his critics with abandon.
Anas Altikriti, head of the Córdoba Foundation think tank that focuses on relations between the Muslim world and Western nations, said at Thursday’s forum in London that while the so-called Arab Spring was one of the “moments most transformative of this century,” the events now in Tunisia are “killing” its last remnants.
Ghannoushi’s daughter Soumaya attended the discussion and said Saied has “devoured” Tunisia’s democracy bit by bit.
“Tunisia today is a cocktail of raging crises, political, social, financial, economic, its deadly cocktail that risks exploding at any moment,” he said.
“[Saied] he feeds the nation with a rhetoric of hate [and] invest in crisis to distract the nation,” he added. “That’s the difference between having a normal dictator and a populist dictator.”
“The only hope for Tunisians today is to cross to the other side of the Mediterranean, jump into death ships and seek to escape any [cost].”
Protesters demonstrate against Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunis, Tunisia [File: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters]
Ennahdha has condemned the “unjust decision” against Ghannoushi and other politicians, such as MP Said Ferjani, who was arrested in February, saying the measures are being taken to mask the economic and financial crises that are driving Tunisia into bankruptcy.
Seifeddine Ferjani, son of the jailed politician, said: “There are deeply worrying signs in the way Tunisia is operating now, such as the use of anti-terrorist squads to arrest liberal dissidents and socialist dissidents.
“I think Tunisia is a ticking time bomb [and] the danger is underrepresented.”
Conservative lawmaker Crispin Blunt hosted the discussions, which also featured Rodney Dixon KC, a British barrister leading a case aimed at sanctioning Saied.
Several prominent political figures accused Saied of a coup d’etat, to rule by decree before rewriting the constitution.
In a video message posted on his Facebook page last month, Ghannouchi said: “We are facing another episode of political targeting by judicial means.”
“We have no problem with the judiciary, but we do with the dictatorship. The battle in the country is between democracy and dictatorship, which wants to confiscate the gains of our blessed revolution.”
Soumaya told Al Jazeera that her father, who was arrested on the night of the 27th of Ramadan, one of the holiest dates in the Muslim calendar, was in “good health” and that her mother had been able to visit him.
“It is not his first time in prison. He has been in prison under three dictators so far,” he said.
