Prominent jailed opposition figures on hunger strike

Prominent members of Tunisia’s political opposition have announced they will be joining a collective hunger strike in solidarity with jailed politician Jawhar Ben Mbarek, whose health they say has severely deteriorated after nine days without food, reports Al Jazeera. Ben Mbarek, the co-founder of Tunisia’s main opposition alliance, the National Salvation Front, launched a hunger strike last week to protest his detention since February 2023. Ben Mbarek’s father, veteran activist Ezzeddine Hazgui, said during a news conference in the capital Tunis on Friday that his son is in a ‘worrisome condition, and his health is deteriorating’. Hazgui said his family would launch a hunger strike in solidarity with his jailed son. The leaders of Tunisia’s major opposition parties also declared on Friday that they would go on hunger strike in solidarity with Ben Mbarek. Among them is Issam Chebbi, the leader of the centrist Al Joumhouri (Republican) Party, who is also behind bars after being convicted in the same mass trial as Ben Mbarek earlier this year. Wissam Sghaier, another Al Joumhouri leader, said some party members would follow suit. Rached Ghannouchi, the 84-year-old leader of the Ennahdha party, who is also serving a hefty prison sentence, announced he was joining the hunger protest. Ben Mbarek was sentenced in April to 18 years behind bars on charges of ‘conspiracy against state security’ and ‘belonging to a terrorist group’, in a mass trial slammed by human rights groups as politically motivated. Rights groups have warned of a sharp decline in civil liberties since Saied won the presidency in 2019.