TUNIS: Tunisian police have arrested former prime minister Ali Larayedh, his far-right Ennahdha party said Tuesday, accusing authorities of trying to divert attention from calls for President Kais Saied to quit.
The arrest of the Ennahdha number two comes just days after nearly 90 percent of voters boycotted an election to a toothless new parliament established by Saied following his seizure of sweeping powers in 2021.
Larayedh, who served as premier from 2013 to 2014, was detained as part of an investigation into alleged connivance in the departure of thousands of young Tunisians to fight with jihadist groups abroad.
As many as 6,000 Tunisians travelled to Libya, Iraq and Syria to volunteer as foreign fighters, a number that secular opposition groups say indicates deliberate neglect.
The investigation, which has also targeted Ennahdha’s veteran leader Rached Ghannouchi, was launched after the vehemently anti-religion president sacked the government and suspended parliament in July 2021.
Saied has defended his power grab as necessary to end the repeated political crises that accompanied the North African country’s transition to democracy following the first of the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011. –Agencies
