No phrase on jailed Tunisian opposition chief Ghannouchi for 11 days, his son tells Al Jazeera.
Printed On 27 Jul 2026
The son of jailed Tunisian opposition chief Rached Ghannouchi says his household and legal professionals have been unable to see or contact the 85-year-old for 11 days since he was hospitalised after collapsing in jail.
In an interview with Al Jazeera on Monday, Moadh Ghannouchi stated the final time legal professionals noticed his father was days earlier than he briefly misplaced consciousness on July 17, and that requests to go to him in hospital, together with one submitted to the general public prosecutor, had been refused, leaving the household with no affirmation of his whereabouts or situation.
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“It is sort of a state of affairs of enforced disappearance,” he stated.
Ghannouchi stated his father, who has hypertension and problem respiratory, had been left uncovered to a extreme heatwave in a jail with no air-con.
“We maintain the authorities totally chargeable for his situation,” he stated, alleging that his father’s confinement in a stiflingly sizzling jail was meant to worsen his well being.
“It was not sufficient to imprison him – they wish to torment him additional,” Moadh informed Al Jazeera.
“That is annoying for us and positively for him as properly as a result of he’s used to all the time having quite a lot of visits each week from legal professionals and from household – so it has been 11 days lower off from the whole lot, from each go to, from everybody.”
Ghannouchi stated conflicting rumours had unfold on social media, with some inserting his father on the Rabta public hospital in Tunis, others at a navy hospital, and a few claiming he had suffered a coronary heart assault. However the household has acquired no official data, he stated, with the authorities refusing to speak.
In a press release on his official Fb web page on Monday, Ghannouchi’s defence workforce demanded data on his situation. An Ennahda occasion spokesperson informed Al Jazeera that it didn’t know which hospital he’s in or his state of well being.
The previous speaker of parliament and most distinguished determine detained in President Kais Saied’s crackdown on opponents has been jailed since April 2023 after receiving a life sentence that his supporters say was politically motivated. Saied’s authorities denies that prosecutions of opponents are politically pushed.
Rached Ghannouchi lost consciousness last week as temperatures inside Mornaguia jail climbed, in response to Haifa Chebbi, daughter of one other imprisoned opposition determine. She stated she witnessed the incident and that the temperature reached 52C (126F). His legal professionals stated on Thursday that his situation was “vital.”
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention beforehand discovered that Ghannouchi’s detention was arbitrary and referred to as for his fast launch, a ruling his son stated authorities ignored.
On Sunday, the Nationwide Salvation Entrance, a broad opposition coalition, urged the authorities to problem a right away assertion on his well being and Amnesty Worldwide referred to as for the safety of prisoners in the course of the heatwave.
