Tunisian judge opens new probe into political figures

TUNIS - A Tunisian judge has opened a new investigation into political figures including major opponents of President Kais Saied on suspicion of conspiring against state security, a lawyer for one of them said.

The case comes after a wave of arrests of opposition figures over recent months that Saied's critics have attacked as a political clampdown, which he denies, and may spur fears of more detentions.

The 20 people accused in the new case include the main opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi, who is already in prison, former prime minister Youssef Chahed and Saied's former chief of staff Nadia Akacha, said the lawyer, Nadia Chouachi.

The list also includes a former mayor of a Tunis district, a former military officer and a freelance journalist, Chouachi said.

Ghannouchi, the former parliament speaker, was among the most prominent political figures of recent Tunisian history as his Ennahda party played a role in successive governments during the democratic period after the 2011 revolution.

Now 81, he was sentenced this month to a year in prison for incitement over a funeral elegy for a party member. Police have closed the offices of Ennahda, an Islamist party that had been in governing coalitions with secular parties, across Tunisia.

Chahed was prime minister from 2016-20, chosen by the parliament for his technocratic credentials, and was one of the candidates who lost to Saied in the 2019 presidential election.

Nadia Akacha was seen as Saied's closest confidante until she left the role of chief of staff last year and moved to France before leaked audio recordings emerged of her voicing strong criticisms of Saied.

Tunisia's opposition accuses Saied of a coup for shutting down the parliament in 2021, moving to rule by decree and passing a new constitution through a referendum with low turnout, giving himself nearly unchecked powers.

Rights groups have also accused him of undermining judicial independence by replacing main figures on Tunisia's top judiciary committee and warning that judges who freed those arrested this year would be considered as abetting them.

He has denied carrying out a coup, saying his actions were legal and necessary to save Tunisia, and accuses his opponents of being criminals, traitors and terrorists.