USA erwarten Eskalation in Tunesien nach Verhaftung von Ghannoushi

Die Verhaftung des Chefs der islamistischen Ennadha Partei dürfte die Situation in Tunesien noch weiter eskalieren:

On Monday evening, Tunisian authorities arrested Ghannouchi, the unpopular face of the moderate Islamist-inspired Ennahda party and the last parliament speaker before Saied dissolved the legislative body nearly two years ago. (...)

Tunisian authorities have since detained three more prominent Ennahda officials and raided the party’s main headquarters. Reuters reports the security services also banned Ennahda from holding meetings, and closed the office of the wider anti-Saied coalition known as the National Salvation Front. 

In a statement issued two days after Ghannouchi's arrest, State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel called the recent clampdown "fundamentally at odds with the principles Tunisians adopted in a constitution that explicitly guarantees freedom of opinion, thought, and expression." 

Critics say that the constitution, which was approved in July following a widely boycotted referendum, reversed the many hard-won democratic gains in the country that birthed the Arab Spring and further cemented Saied's one-man rule. 

The latest arrests, combined with the closure of Ennahda's headquarters, the banning of meetings held by certain opposition groups — “and the Tunisian government’s implication that these actions are based on public statements — represent a troubling escalation by the Tunisian government against perceived opponents," Patel said.