TUNIS — Tunisia's detained former justice
minister
Noureddine Bhiri is refusing food or medication after his transfer to
hospital, a member of a delegation that visited him told AFP on Monday.
اضافة اعلان
Bhiri, deputy president of the
Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, which
President Kais Saied views as an enemy,
was arrested by plainclothes officers Friday and his whereabouts were initially
unknown.
Ennahdha had played a central role in
Tunisia politics until a power grab by President Kais Saied last year.
Tunisia was the only democracy to emerge
from the Arab Spring revolts of a decade ago, but civil society groups and
Saied's opponents have expressed fear of a slide back to authoritarianism a
decade after the revolution that toppled longtime dictator Zine El-Abidine Ben
Ali.
On Sunday activists and a former Ennahdha
legislator said Bhiri was in a critical condition and facing death.
But the source told AFP that Bhiri, 63, is
"not in critical condition for the time being".
The source, asking not to be named, told AFP
that a joint team from Tunisia's independent anti-torture group INPT and the UN
rights commission visited Bhiri at hospital in the northern town of Bizerte on
Sunday.
He is "lively and lucid", and
being kept under close observation in a private room of the hospital's
cardiology ward.
Since Friday, however, Bhiri has "refused
to take any food or medication, prompting his transfer to hospital" two
days later, the source said.
Samir Dilou, a lawyer and ex-Ennahdha MP,
condemned Bhiri's arrest as "political" and an abuse of the justice
system.
'Kidnapping' charge
He told a Tunis news conference that he is
lodging a "kidnapping" charge against Saied and
Interior Minister Taoufik Charfeddine.
Bhiri's wife, Saida Akremi, also a lawyer,
told reporters he had suffered "a heart attack", and that she
was being denied access to him because she refused to sign documents as
demanded by security services.
Mondher Ounissi, a doctor and member of
Ennahdha's executive bureau, said Sunday that Bhiri suffers from several
chronic illnesses, including diabetes and hypertension.
He has been "deprived of his
medication" and "his life is threatened", Ounissi said, adding
that Bhiri usually takes 16 pills a day.
The interior ministry on Friday said that
two individuals had been ordered under house arrest, without identifying them.
It said the move was a "preventive
measure dictated by the need to preserve national security".
The anti-torture group INPT has identified
the second person detained as Fathi Baldi, a former interior ministry official.
The president "bears full
responsibility for the life of Mr Bhiri", the anti-Saied group
"Citizens against the coup" said Sunday on Twitter.
It said he had been "rushed to the
hospital in a very serious condition".
Saied on July 25 sacked the
Ennahdha-supported government and suspended parliament, presenting himself as
the ultimate interpreter of the constitution.
He later took steps to rule by decree, and
in early December vowed to press on with reforms to the political system.
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