01 Jan 2022; MEMO: According to an announcement by the Tunisian Ennahda Movement on Friday, President Kais Saied is "directly responsible" for the kidnapping of the movement's vice president, Noureddine Bhiri.
"This morning, the movement's Vice President MP Noureddine Bhiri was kidnapped by security men wearing civilian clothing and was taken to an unknown destination," the Ennahda Movement shared in a statement.
"We hold the president of the republic directly responsible for the kidnapping of Bhiri, since he instigated against him in his speeches," member of the movement's executive bureau Mohamed Goumani asserted in a press conference.
Zeinab Brahimi, another member of the movement's executive bureau, affirmed at the same press conference: "There is no search warrant or any judicial procedure, what happened to Bhiri was a kidnapping."
Bhiri, 63, is a lawyer and politician and was minister of justice between 2011 and 2013, then became a minister delegate to the head of government between 2013 and 2014.
Since 25 July, Tunisia has witnessed a political crisis due to "exceptional measures", including freezing Parliament's powers, lifting the immunity of MPs, issuing legislation by presidential decrees, sacking the prime minister and appointing a new government.
Most political and civil forces in Tunisia reject these measures and consider them a "coup against the constitution." In contrast, other forces support them as a "correction of the course of the 2011 revolution," which overthrew the rule of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (1987-2011).
