Tunisian opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi, head of the self-described Islamic Democratic party Ennahdha, has started a three-day hunger strike behind bars, Al Jazeera has reported.
The strike comes in solidarity with fellow political prisoner Jouaher Ben Mbarek, who is also head of the opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front.
Ghannouchi, who has been a prominent critic of President Kais Saied, has been imprisoned since last April on charges of incitement and plotting against Saied’s rule, which he has continued to deny.
“We in the Ennahda Party express our deepest expressions of appreciation, admiration, and solidarity with the two eminent leaders, Rached Ghannouchi and Jaouher Ben Mbarek, and with all those who have been behind bars for several months,” the party said in a statement, noting that most of them have been imprisoned “without trials” in “fabricated cases.”
“We call on the authorities to release all political detainees immediately, and we hold them responsible for any harm caused to the health and safety of the prisoners on hunger strike,” the statement concluded.
The opposition leader was sentenced to one year in prison in May, in absentia, as he refused to appear before the court, rejecting what he called a fabricated trial.
Ghannouchi was parliament speaker from 2019 to 2021, when President Saied forcibly shut down parliament in a coup that has been fiercely criticized by opposition powers, including Ghannouchi.
Following his takeover of power, Saied enshrined new powers in a controversial referendum that had low turnout rates.
Ghannouchi had also spent 20 years in exile before the 2011 revolution that ousted former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, with Ennahdha gaining an unprecedented 37% of the vote when he returned from exile.
