Karoui freed from jail but remains controversial figure

TUNIS - Tunisian presidential hopeful Nabil Karoui said he will "wage battle and win" a weekend runoff against a political newcomer, a day after the business tycoon was released from jail.

"There is a day or two left but we will wage the battle and we will win," he said, a day before campaigning wraps up for the election on October 13th.

Karoui had been detained since August over a money laundering probe and tax evasion. He was released on Wednesday to a hero's welcome from his supporters following a decision by the Court of Cassation.

"Yesterday, the judicial system set me free. The independent judicial system... there was no deal (for my release)," he told reporters and supporters outside the headquarters of his Qalb Tounes party.

The 56-year-old had described his incarceration as a "political" move.

"I had hoped that the elections would be pushed back by a week," he said of Sunday's runoff.

His return to the political arena as a free man comes at a time of uncertainty for the country hailed as the sole democratic success story of the Arab Spring.

Karoui will face conservative law professor Kais Saeid in the runoff, with both candidates considered political outsiders. Representatives of the two established political ideologies - secularism and moderate Islamism - were roundly rejected by disillusioned voters in the first round of the election.

The winner of the election will assume executive power in the North African country widely seen as the only success story of the 2011 Arab Spring, after the death in July of Beji Caid Essebsi, the country's first freely elected president. 

Karoui's chances of wooing voters got a boost from parliamentary elections held on Sunday.

His party Qalb Tounes came second with 38 seats, behind the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party which won 52 out of 217 seats in the national assembly - far short of the 109 needed to govern.

"I thank the Tunisian people for the trust they put in me despite the defamation campaign of which I was the victim," Karoui said.

"This trust helped me reach the finals and become the second force in parliament," he added.

Karoui said his party has grown to include half a million members since he was jailed - up from 1,000 - and he was happy to be back among his political "family".

"I wish to thank the judges who are honourable people and who set me free despite political pressure... they realised that I had suffered from injustice," he added.

Corrupt millionaire or defamed champion?

One of his lawyers, Nazih Soui, has said that although Karoui is now "free" he still remains under investigation.

A former executive for Colgate-Palmolive who launced a media agency with his brother in 2002, Karoui presents himself as a candidate for the poor. But he is also linked to a group of entrepreneurs and businessmen in Tunisia who made their names in the years after the revolution, and have been accused of undermining the country's democratic transition.

He is also disliked by some within the more conservative strains of Tunisian society. In 2011, Karoui went on trial during a public uproar over his Nessma TV channel's airing of the film 'Persepolis' about Iran's 1979 revolution, after people accused the film of "undermining" sacred Islamic values due to its depiction of God.

Karoui's political opponents, including the current Prime Minister Youssef Chahed who had also run for president, see him as a corrupt, power-hungry opportunist who took advantage of the economic uncertainty that followed Tunisia's revolution.

Tunisian NGOs have linked Nessma TV to a series of offshore companies, and Karoui is accused of having evaded millions of Tunisian dinars in taxes. In 2017, a recording was leaked of Karoui ordering journalists at Nessma TV to defame the Tunisian anti-corruption group I Watch "even if it's bogus" for publishing claims of Karoui's alleged corruption.

But Karoui has burnished his reputation in recent years with a charity show on Nessma TV, travelling the country to hear grievances and distributing aid to needy families.

His release from prison was also widely hailed by many Tunisians fearful that having an election with one jailed candidate would undermine the legitimacy of the electoral process. Saied himself had said that Karoui's imprisonment left him "morally uncomfortable", leading him to suspend his campaign for "ethical reasons".

The two candidates are now expected to meet in a televised debate on October 11th ahead of the election run-off on the 13th.