Arrests, summonses of potential presidential candidates in Tunisia continue as election day nears

Arrests, summonses of potential presidential candidates in Tunisia continue as election day nears
Tunisia’s President Kais Saied casts his ballot as he participates in the legislative elections in Tunis, Dec. 17, 2022. (AP/File)
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Updated 13 July 2024
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Arrests, summonses of potential presidential candidates in Tunisia continue as election day nears

Arrests, summonses of potential presidential candidates in Tunisia continue as election day nears
  • Abdellatif Mekki is among a group of former politicians being investigated for the 2014 killing of a prominent physician
  • The challenges facing opposition candidates are a far cry from the democratic hopes felt throughout Tunisia a decade ago

TUNIS: As elections approach in Tunisia, potential candidates are facing arrest or being summoned to appear in court as authorities clamp down on those planning to challenge President Kais Saied.
On Friday, a judge in a Tunis court put a potential presidential candidate under a gag order and restricted his movements. Abdellatif Mekki, who served as Tunisia’s health minister and was a prominent leader of the Islamist movement Ennahda before founding his own political party, is among a group of former politicians being investigated for the 2014 killing of a prominent physician.
His political party, Work and Accomplishment, has decried the timing of the murder charges as politically motivated due to his plans to run against Saied in Tunisia’s October election.
“We strongly condemn these arbitrary measures, considering them political targeting of a serious candidate in the presidential elections,” it said in a statement Friday.
Mekki is the latest potential candidate to face legal obstacles before campaigning even gets underway in the 12 million person North African nation.
The challenges facing opposition candidates are a far cry from the democratic hopes felt throughout Tunisia a decade ago. The country emerged as one of the Arab Spring’s only success stories after deposing former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, holding peaceful, democratic elections and rewriting its constitution in 2014.
Since 2019, observers have been alarmed at growing signs of a democratic backslide. Saied has imprisoned political opponents, suspended parliament and rewritten the constitution to consolidate the power of the presidency. Despite Tunisia’s ongoing political and economic challenges, large segments of the population continue to support him and his populist rhetoric targeting corrupt elites and foreign interference into domestic affairs.
About a week before Mekki, Lotfi Mraihi, a physician and veteran politician who had also announced plans to run for president, was arrested on money laundering related charges.
Mraihi, the president of the nationalist Republican People’s Union party, was kept in custody after a judge issued an additional warrant adding to charges filed against him in January.
A court spokesperson in Tunis told Radio Mosaique that the arrest warrant was served “on suspicion of money laundering, transfer of assets and opening of bank accounts abroad without the Central Bank’s approval.”
Last January, the court sentenced Mraihi to a suspended six-month prison term as part of an investigation into a 2019 case related to vote-buying allegations.
The Tunisian non-governmental organization Legal Agenda described the arrest as a show of force.
“The arrest of the presumed candidate, Lotfi Mrahi, represents a new step by the authorities in tightening its grip on the electoral process, after announcing ‘tailor-made’ conditions for candidacy, while judicial rulings ensure that the rest of the candidates in the race are besieged,” it said in a statement last week.
The arrests add Mekki and Mraihi to the list of Tunisian politicians pursued by the courts in Saied’s Tunisia.
Amnesty International said in February that over the year prior more than 20 political critics of Saied’s government had been arrested, detained or convicted on charges related to their political activity.
The pursuit of Saied’s political opponents has spanned the political spectrum, from Tunisia’s lslamists like Ennahda’s 83-year-old leader Rached Ghannouchi and nationalists like Free Destourian Party President 49-year-old Abir Moussi.
Ghannouchi has been behind bars since May 2024, facing foreign interference charges that Ennahda, the country’s largest Islamist party, has decried as politically motivated.
Tunisia’s anti-terrorism court sentenced him to one year in prison and a fine following public statements he made at a funeral in February 2022, when he appeared to call the president “a tyrant.”
Ghannouchi continues to face legal challenges. This weekend, the court sentenced him to three years in prison on charges that he was involved in an illicit foreign financing scheme during the last presidential election.
Moussi, a popular right-wing figure who appeals to Tunisians nostalgic for the pre-revolution era, was arrested in October 2023. She was initially detained while being investigated under a controversial cybercrime law after Tunisia’s election authority filed a complaint against her. The complaint came after Moussi criticized a lack of transparency and the presidential decrees guiding the electoral process.
Moussi’s party had announced plans to challenge Saied in October before her arrest and confirmed them earlier this month, though she remains imprisoned.
The National Salvation Front — a coalition of secular and Islamist parties including Ennahda — has said Tunisia can’t hold a legitimate election in such a political climate. The group has denounced the process as a sham and said it won’t endorse or nominate a candidate.
This arrests have sparked outrage among individual political parties and inflamed worries about the country’s ailing political and economic atmosphere landscape.
Work and Accomplishment, Mekki’s party, said his Friday arrest would “confuse the general political climate, undermine the credibility of the electoral process and harm Tunisia’s image.”


Israel army says intercepted missile launched from Yemen

Updated 28 sec ago
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Israel army says intercepted missile launched from Yemen

Israel army says intercepted missile launched from Yemen
“A missile that was launched from Yemen was intercepted” by the Israeli air force
It was the first missile launch against Israel announced by the Houthis since the June 24
ceasefire

JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen on Tuesday, after air raid sirens sounded in several areas including Jerusalem.

“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile that was launched from Yemen was intercepted” by the Israeli air force, an army statement said.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants have launched repeated missile and drone attacks against Israel since their Palestinian ally Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war.

On Saturday, the Houthis said they fired a ballistic missile toward Israel in response to Israel’s conduct toward Palestinians during the Gaza war.

It was the first missile launch against Israel announced by the Houthis since the June 24
ceasefire between Israel and Iran which ended their 12-day war.

The Houthis, who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians, paused their attacks during a two-month ceasefire in Gaza that ended in March, but renewed them after Israel resumed its offensive.

Israel has carried out several retaliatory strikes in Yemen, targeting Houthi-held ports and the airport in the militant-held capital Sanaa.

Egypt and Oman confirm unity on Gaza, Gulf security

Egypt and Oman confirm unity on Gaza, Gulf security
Updated 52 min 55 sec ago
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Egypt and Oman confirm unity on Gaza, Gulf security

Egypt and Oman confirm unity on Gaza, Gulf security
  • Foreign ministers highlighted their firm rejection of the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza
  • They called for diplomatic solutions to the Iranian nuclear issue

LONDON: Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said that the security of the Gulf, including Oman’s, is tied to Egypt’s security, after a meeting with his Omani counterpart Badr bin Hamad Al-Busaidi on Tuesday.

The ministers discussed various regional issues, including Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and the ceasefire between Iran and Israel, which ended 12 days of conflict in June.

The ministers highlighted the importance of maintaining the ceasefire between Tehran and Tel Aviv, and called for diplomatic solutions to the Iranian nuclear issue to reduce tensions and promote regional stability in line with international law, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

They highlighted their firm rejection of the forced displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and reaffirmed their support for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Abdelatty said that Egypt is working with Qatar and the US to reach an agreement to end Israel’s attacks in Gaza and pave the way for an international conference to reconstruct the Palestinian coastal enclave.

Al-Busaidi said that Muscat fully supports Egypt’s efforts to find a solution to the Palestinian issue in Gaza. He also expressed solidarity with Egypt regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which is being constructed on the Blue Nile. Egypt has raised concerns over the dam’s potential to significantly compromise its water supply.

Abdelatty and Al-Busaidi co-chaired the 16th session of the Egyptian-Omani Joint Committee in Cairo and witnessed the signing of several memorandums of understanding in the fields of investment, education, labor and technology.


Egypt’s President El-Sisi holds talks with Sudan Army chief

Egypt’s President El-Sisi holds talks with Sudan Army chief
Updated 01 July 2025
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Egypt’s President El-Sisi holds talks with Sudan Army chief

Egypt’s President El-Sisi holds talks with Sudan Army chief
  • Gen. Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan held talks with the Egyptian president in Egypt’s El-Alamein City
  • They also discussed aid efforts to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Sudan

LONDON: Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and the Sudanese military leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan have held talks about restoring security in Sudan, where civil war has raged for two years.

Al-Burhan, who presides over Sudan’s sovereign council, met with El-Sisi in Egypt’s El-Alamein City on Monday evening.

They discussed the ongoing conflict in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and efforts to alleviate the humanitarian suffering in the country, the Egyptian president’s spokesman said.

The leaders “discussed the latest developments on the ground in Sudan, as well as regional and international efforts to restore peace and stability there,” the spokesman said. “President El-Sisi underscored Egypt’s steadfast position in support of Sudan’s unity, sovereignty, security, and stability.”

The two sides agreed on the “vital need” to provide support and assistance to the Sudanese people, given the severe humanitarian conditions caused by the ongoing conflict.

Egypt has supported the Sudanese military since the civil war began in April 2023 when an alliance between the RSF and Al-Burhan broke down and the paramilitary group seized the capital Khartoum.

The Sudanese Armed Forces retook the city in March but fighting has raged in other parts of the country, particularly in the Darfur region.

The military agreed on Saturday to a humanitarian ceasefire in El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur province, which has been besieged by the RSF and seen some of the worst fighting in recent months.

The UN estimates that the conflict has killed 20,000 people and driven more than 14 million form they homes.


Greece, EU to press Libya on migrant crossings as Mediterranean numbers surge

Greece, EU to press Libya on migrant crossings as Mediterranean numbers surge
Updated 01 July 2025
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Greece, EU to press Libya on migrant crossings as Mediterranean numbers surge

Greece, EU to press Libya on migrant crossings as Mediterranean numbers surge
  • Commissioner Magnus Brunner plans to travel to Libya next week with government representatives from Greece, Italy and Malta
  • “We’re traveling together to Libya next week because we have to be fast, I think, and firm,” Brunner said

ATHENS: The European Union ‘s commissioner for migration says Europe will take a “firm” approach with authorities in Libya following a spike in illegal migration across the Mediterranean.

Commissioner Magnus Brunner plans to travel to Libya next week with government representatives from Greece, Italy and Malta, seeking tougher measures from Libyan authorities to stop boats carrying migrants from leaving for Europe.

“That is actually a question which bothers us quite a lot at the moment. Libya is, of course, at the top of the agenda, and we’re traveling together to Libya next week because we have to be fast, I think, and firm,” Brunner said Tuesday at a conference in Athens.

Brunner, who discussed the upcoming visit at a meeting with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said the delegation would meet with representatives from both the United Nations-recognized government in western Libya and a rival authority in the east.

Greece recently announced plans to send warships to international waters in the region following a surge in crossings from Libya to the southern Greek island of Crete — a more perilous route than the more frequently used passage between Turkiye and nearby Greek islands.

In 2023, hundreds died when the fishing trawler Adriana, carrying migrants from Libya to Italy, sank off Greek waters.


Nine die, 27 hospitalized from methanol poisoning in alcoholic beverages in Jordan

Nine die, 27 hospitalized from methanol poisoning in alcoholic beverages in Jordan
Updated 01 July 2025
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Nine die, 27 hospitalized from methanol poisoning in alcoholic beverages in Jordan

Nine die, 27 hospitalized from methanol poisoning in alcoholic beverages in Jordan
  • Ministry of Health reported that most patients are in a critical condition, with some requiring ventilator support in intensive care units
  • Authorities raided a factory and arrested suspects who purchased methyl alcohol and used it to manufacture illicit alcoholic beverages

LONDON: The Jordanian Ministry of Health announced that nine people died and 27 others were hospitalized this week due to poisoning after consuming alcoholic drinks contaminated with methanol.

The affected individuals are currently receiving intensive medical treatment, including dialysis to remove the toxic substance from their bloodstream, at hospitals in Zarqa, Amman and Balqa, Director of the Technical Affairs Department at the Ministry Imad Abu Yaqeen told Petra news agency.

Most patients were in a critical condition, he said, with some requiring ventilator support in intensive care units. Methanol, a highly toxic substance, is not intended for oral consumption and is used as a solvent in paints and as a fuel additive.

Abu Yaqeen said that dialysis remained the most crucial life-saving measure, along with ventilator support. However, these interventions might be less effective if significant amounts of methanol were ingested, he added.

He said that the first cases reported over the weekend were at Zarqa Government Hospital, and the ministry is continuing to enhance preparedness in the emergency and ambulance departments to handle any new cases.

On Monday, Jordan's Public Security Directorate, or PSD, arrested several individuals suspected of producing toxic alcoholic beverages using industrial methanol.

The PSD raided a factory where suspects purchased methyl alcohol and used it to manufacture illicit alcoholic beverages, as well as a warehouse that supplied the substance to the market. Additionally, authorities seized large quantities of alcohol from stores that the factory produced.