Tunisia Extends Arrest of Ghannouchi, Ennahda Leaders for 4 More Months

 Rached al-Ghannouchi, head of the Ennahda Movement. (AFP file)
Rached al-Ghannouchi, head of the Ennahda Movement. (AFP file)
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Tunisia Extends Arrest of Ghannouchi, Ennahda Leaders for 4 More Months

 Rached al-Ghannouchi, head of the Ennahda Movement. (AFP file)
Rached al-Ghannouchi, head of the Ennahda Movement. (AFP file)

A court in Tunis extended the arrest of the leader of the Islamic Ennahda Movement, Rached al-Ghannouchi, for an additional four months.

An Ennahda source told the German news agency (dpa) that the ruling also included two other movement leaders in the case related to statements deemed “incitement against the authority.”

Ghannouchi, 82, and other prominent leaders of the movement, including former Prime Minister Ali Laarayedh, former Justice Minister Noureddine Bhiri, opposition politicians, and lawyers have been in prison for about a year for investigation into cases related to terrorism and conspiracy against state security.

This is the second extension of the suspension period approved by the court.

Two rulings were issued in two separate cases against Ghannouchi, the first related to incitement against security, in which he was sentenced to 15 months in prison and a fine of about 300 euros, with him subjected to administrative control for three years.

On February 1, Ghannouchi and his son-in-law, Rafik Abdessalam, were sentenced to three years in prison in the case related to the party receiving foreign funding for its 2019 election campaign.

Abdessalam, a former foreign minister, was tried in absentia in the same case and sentenced to three years.

Ennahda was ordered to pay a fine of $1.17 million.

The movement and opposition factions accuse the ruling authority, headed by President Kais Saied, of fabricating charges against opponents and controlling the judiciary.

Last Thursday, the indictment chamber of the Tunis Court of Appeal rejected all demands for the release of the detained in what is known as the “conspiracy against state security.”



UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli forces raided four of its schools in east Jerusalem, ordering their closure.

Israel has severed all ties with the agency, known as UNRWA, and bars it from operating in its territory. It says the agency allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, allegations denied by UN officials.

UNRWA said police entered a training center by force on Tuesday, firing tear gas and sound grenades and ordering its evacuation. It said 350 students and 30 staff were present during the raid on the Qalandiya Training Center.

It said police and city officials ordered the closure of three other schools in east Jerusalem, two of which proceeded with the school day.

Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said police did not enter the UN buildings and that Jerusalem municipal authorities carried out the closures. He said police were deployed to protect the city workers, using “riot dispersal” means in one case where a crowd threw stones at them outside a UN facility.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA director for the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, said the raids were an “unacceptable violation of United Nations privileges and immunities,” and a “denial of the right to education for children and trainees.”