According to the party and the wife of a detainee, three leaders of the formerly dominant Ennahdha party in Tunisia are on a hunger strike to protest their incarceration as part of a campaign against the president's critics.
One of them, 64-year-old Sahbi Atig, a former head of Ennahdha's parliamentary caucus, has been on a hunger strike for 32 days, which has caused a serious decline in his health, according to his wife Zeineb Mraihi, who recently paid him a visit in jail.
“He lost 17 kilograms (37 pounds), his heart rhythm is weak and he can hardly speak,” Mraihi said.
Atig spent several days in intensive care at hospital last week, she added.
The Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party was the largest in parliament before Saied dissolved the chamber in July 2021.
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The move was part of a power-grab allowing him to rule by decree in the only democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring uprisings in the region more than a decade ago.
Last month, A Tunisian court handed Ennahdha leader Rached Ghannouchi a one-year prison sentence on terrorism-related charges, which the party condemned as an “unjust political verdict.”
Ghannouchi and Atig are among more than 20 of Saied’s political opponents and personalities arrested since February, including former ministers and business figures.
Since the beginning of May, Atig has been detained on suspicion of money laundering.
Another Ennahdha leader, former parliamentarian Ahmed Mechergui, 54, reportedly started a hunger strike on Sunday to protest his detention since April 18.
Youssef Nouri, a prominent party member who was also detained around the same time, has been fasting since April 25 in order to "protest the conditions of his detention and the non-respect of his fundamental rights," according to the party.
In March the European Parliament, in a non-binding resolution, decried the “authoritarian drift” of Saied, who says those detained were “terrorists” involved in a “conspiracy against state security”.
