Jailed Tunisia opposition leaders on hunger strike

TUNIS — Three leaders of Tunisia's once-dominant Ennahdha Party are on a hunger strike to protest their detention under a crackdown against opponents of President Kais Saied, the party and a detainee's wife said Monday.

One of them, Sahbi Atig, 64, a former leader of Ennahdha's parliamentary bloc, has been on his hunger strike for 32 days, leading to a severe deterioration in his health, his wife Zeineb Mraihi said after visiting him in prison.

"He lost 17 kilogrammes, his heart rhythm is weak and he can hardly speak," Mraihi said.

Atig spent several days in intensive care at hospital last week, she added.

The Islamist-inspired Ennahdha Party was the largest in parliament before Saied dissolved the chamber in July 2021.

The move was part of a power-grab allowing him to rule by decree in the only democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring uprisings in the region more than a decade ago.

A Tunisian court last month handed Ennahdha leader Rached Ghannouchi a one-year prison sentence on terrorism-related charges, which the party condemned as an "unjust political verdict".

Ghannouchi and Atig are among more than 20 of Saied's political opponents and personalities arrested since February, including former ministers and business figures.

Atig has been held since early May on suspicion of money laundering.

According to a statement from Ennahdha, another of its leaders, former member of parliament Ahmed Mechergui, 54, began a hunger strike on Sunday to protest his incarceration since April 18.

Another leading party figure Youssef Nouri, who was arrested around the same time, has been on a hunger strike since April 25 to "protest the conditions of his detention and non-respect of his fundamental rights", the party said.

In March the European Parliament, in a non-binding resolution, decried the "authoritarian drift" of Saied, who says those detained were "terrorists" involved in a "conspiracy against state security".