Tunisia’s Ennahda Accused of Concealing Evidence Tied to Political Assassinations

Rached Ghannouchi, leader of Tunisia's Ennahda party, attends the parliament's opening with a session to elect a speaker, in Tunis, Tunisia November 13, 2019. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi
Rached Ghannouchi, leader of Tunisia's Ennahda party, attends the parliament's opening with a session to elect a speaker, in Tunis, Tunisia November 13, 2019. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi
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Tunisia’s Ennahda Accused of Concealing Evidence Tied to Political Assassinations

Rached Ghannouchi, leader of Tunisia's Ennahda party, attends the parliament's opening with a session to elect a speaker, in Tunis, Tunisia November 13, 2019. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi
Rached Ghannouchi, leader of Tunisia's Ennahda party, attends the parliament's opening with a session to elect a speaker, in Tunis, Tunisia November 13, 2019. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi

The involvement of Tunisia’s Islamist Ennahda Movement in political assassinations that rocked the North African country resurfaced with accusations that the party had concealed evidence linked to the murders.

The defense lawyers of opposition figures Mohamed Brahmi and Chokri Belaid said that investigations proved that Ennahda’s secret apparatus was behind the political assassinations which took place in 2013.

A committee, made up of lawyers, directed a wave of new accusations against Ennahda’s leadership for plotting the assassinations. It confirmed that there is a direct link between the movement’s secret apparatus, the assassinations, and the movement’s leadership.

In a press conference held in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, and marking the seventh anniversary of the murders, the committee held Ennahda’s secret apparatus responsible for violence in the country after Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s regime was overthrown in 2011.

The case of Ennahda’s secret apparatus exploded in 2018 when the committee exposed documents and evidence connecting Ennahda to a parallel security state apparatus involved in political assassinations, espionage, and violating state institutions.

Member of the committee Anwar al-Basiti, on Thursday, revealed that evidence points to the direct involvement of Ennahda’s secret apparatus.

Iman Qazaza, another committee member, confirmed that Ennahda’s secret apparatus was also involved in concealing evidence, some of which are tied to the terrorist Abu Bakir al-Hakim.

Qazaza revealed that a connection was found between Mustapha Kheder, considered the head of Ennahda’s secret apparatus, and the president of the movement, Rached Ghannouchi via his cell phone and through a person called Kamel Badaoui.

Qazaza said that Badaoui is extremely close to Ghannouchi and belongs to the 1991 security group. He exercises secret and security functions and he was called to the rescue by Kheder on December 19, 2013, the date of his arrest.

Qazaza added that the Attorney General Bachir Akremi had used every ploy to protect Ghannouchi and some of his close associates and he did not send the file to court.



Fears for Gaza Hospitals as Fuel and Aid Run Low

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
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Fears for Gaza Hospitals as Fuel and Aid Run Low

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled.

The warning came a day after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant more than a year into the Gaza war.

The United Nations and others have repeatedly decried humanitarian conditions, particularly in northern Gaza, where Israel said Friday it had killed two commanders involved in Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war.

Gaza medics said an overnight Israeli raid on the cities of Beit Lahia and nearby Jabalia resulted in dozens killed or missing.

Marwan al-Hams, director of Gaza's field hospitals, told reporters all hospitals in the Palestinian territory "will stop working or reduce their services within 48 hours due to the occupation's (Israel's) obstruction of fuel entry".

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of 80 patients, including 8 in the intensive care unit" at Kamal Adwan hospital, one of just two partly operating in northern Gaza.

Kamal Adwan director Hossam Abu Safia told AFP it was "deliberately hit by Israeli shelling for the second day" Friday and that "one doctor and some patients were injured".

Late Thursday, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Muhannad Hadi, said: "The delivery of critical aid across Gaza, including food, water, fuel and medical supplies, is grinding to a halt."

He said that for more than six weeks, Israeli authorities "have been banning commercial imports" while "a surge in armed looting" has hit aid convoys.

Issuing the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the Hague-based ICC said there were "reasonable grounds" to believe they bore "criminal responsibility" for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and crimes against humanity including over "the lack of food, water, electricity and fuel, and specific medical supplies".

At least 44,056 people have been killed in Gaza during more than 13 months of war, most of them civilians, according to figures from Gaza's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.