Tunisia Extends Detention of Ennahda Vice President

Ali Laarayed, a suspect in the sending of Tunisian recruits to hotbeds of tension and terrorism. (EPA)
Ali Laarayed, a suspect in the sending of Tunisian recruits to hotbeds of tension and terrorism. (EPA)
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Tunisia Extends Detention of Ennahda Vice President

Ali Laarayed, a suspect in the sending of Tunisian recruits to hotbeds of tension and terrorism. (EPA)
Ali Laarayed, a suspect in the sending of Tunisian recruits to hotbeds of tension and terrorism. (EPA)

A Tunisian anti-terrorism investigative judge decided on Tuesday to extend for four months the detention of several suspects over the sending of Tunisian recruits to hotbeds of tension and terrorism during 2012 and 2013.

The suspects include former interior minister and vice-president of the Ennahda Movement, Ali Laarayed.

The decision also includes former officials in the Ministry of Interior, Abdul Karim Al Obaidi who was the former head of the aircraft protection squad at Tunis-Carthage airport, and Fathi Al-Baladi, who is accused of establishing a parallel security apparatus that follows the Ennahda leaders' instructions.

Security and judicial investigations also comprised Sayf al-Din Rayes, a former spokesman for the banned Ansar al-Sharia organization and a detainee in this case.

The Tunisian anti-terrorism investigative judge issued in Sep. 2022 six-month imprisonment sentences against suspects in this case. The detention was extended for four additional months.

Recently, the period was extended for four more months in compliance with the law on combating terrorism and money laundering, issued in July 2015.

Investigations were launched in the wake of a complaint filed by former MP Fatima Al-Masdi of the Nidaa Tounes against political and security figures accusing them of sending thousands of Tunisians to the hotbed abroad, especially Libya and Syria.

Upon this complaint, Laarayed was arrested on Dec. 19, 2022, but no judicial orders were issued in this case.

This made Ennahda institutions, represented in its executive office and Shura council, demand the release of Laarayed.



UN: More Than One Million Syrians Returned to Their Homes Since Assad’s Fall 

A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)
A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)
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UN: More Than One Million Syrians Returned to Their Homes Since Assad’s Fall 

A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)
A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)

More than one million people have returned to their homes in Syria after the overthrow of Bashar Al-Assad on Dec. 8, including 800,000 people displaced inside the country and 280,000 refugees who came back from abroad, the UN said on Tuesday.

“Since the fall of the regime in Syria, we estimate that 280,000 Syrian refugees and more than 800,000 people displaced inside the country have returned to their homes,” Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, wrote on the X social media platform.

“Early recovery efforts must be bolder and faster, though otherwise people will leave again: this is now urgent!” he said.

Last January, the UN's high commissioner for refugees urged the international community to back Syria's reconstruction efforts to facilitate the return of millions of refugees.

“Lift the sanctions, open up space for reconstruction. If we don't do it now at the beginning of the transition, we waste a lot of time,” Grandi told a press conference in Ankara, after returning from a trip in Lebanon and Syria.

At a meeting in mid-February, some 20 countries, including Arab nations, Türkiye, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan agreed at the close of a conference in Paris to “work together to ensure the success of the transition in a process led by Syria.”

The meeting's final statement also pledged support for Syria's new authorities in the fight against “all forms of terrorism and extremism.”

Meanwhile, AFP reported on Tuesday that displaced people are returning to their neighborhoods in Homs, where rebels first took up arms to fight Assad's crackdown on protests in 2011, only to find them in ruins.

In Homs, the Syrian military had besieged and bombarded opposition areas such as Baba Amr, where US journalist Marie Colvin was killed in a bombing in 2012.

“The house is burned down, there are no windows, no electricity,” said Duaa Turki at her dilapidated home in Khaldiyeh neighborhood.

“We removed the rubble, laid a carpet” and moved in, said the 30-year-old mother of four.

“Despite the destruction, we're happy to be back. This is our neighborhood and our land.”

Duaa’s husband spends his days looking for a job, she said, while they hope humanitarian workers begin distributing aid to help the family survive.