Jailed Tunisian opposition leader launches hunger strike

Rached Ghannouchi, the jailed leader of Tunisia’s main opposition party Ennahdha, started a hunger strike Monday, the Islamist party said in a statement. 82-year old Ghannouchi, who has been imprisoned since April 2023, decided to start a hunger strike in solidarity with other prisoners who are also rejecting food, the party said. It added that the strike is intended “to support all the political opponents in the different prisons” across Tunisia.

Ghannouchi is the most prominent opposition figure to be imprisoned by Tunisian authorities since President Kais Saied seized complete control of government in July 2021. Ghannouchi was sentenced earlier this month to three years in prison on charges that his party received illegal foreign funding. Last May Ghannouchi was sentenced to one year in prison on terrorism-related charges.