{"id":1645,"date":"2022-01-06T09:06:25","date_gmt":"2022-01-06T09:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/?p=1645"},"modified":"2022-01-06T09:06:25","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T09:06:25","slug":"doctors-in-tunisia-have-grave-fears-for-hunger-striking-politician","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/1645\/doctors-in-tunisia-have-grave-fears-for-hunger-striking-politician\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctors in Tunisia have \u2018grave fears\u2019 for hunger-striking politician"},"content":{"rendered":"

Doctors in Tunisia have expressed alarm about the health of Noureddine Bhiri, the deputy chairman of the Ennahdha party, who has been refusing food or medication since his arrest last week, a human rights body has said.<\/p>\n

The 63-year-old, who was\u00a0arrested by plainclothes officers<\/a>\u00a0on Friday and later accused of possible \u201cterrorism\u201d offences, suffers from several pre-existing health conditions and was\u00a0hospitalised on Sunday<\/a>. His lawyers have rejected the allegations as \u201ctotally false\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bhiri\u2019s wife, Saida Akremi, and children have started a sit-in at the hospital where the former justice minister was admitted. Akremi said she will not leave the hospital unless her husband is with her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will hunger strike with him. Either we leave together and he goes home or let them take us both in a coffin,\u201d said Akremi at the hospital.<\/p>\n

Tunisia\u2019s independent national body for the prevention of torture (INPT) said three of its medics had visited Bhiri on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, he had agreed to be put on a fluid and medication drip, \u201cbut later he refused again\u201d, INPT official Lotfi Ezzedine said.<\/p>\n

INPT and Bizerte hospital doctors have \u201cgrave fears\u201d of a deterioration in his health, Ezzedine said.<\/p>\n

Ennahdha, the party with the largest number of seats in Tunisia\u2019s frozen parliament, has called for Bhiri\u2019s release and denounced his detention as an illegitimate attempt to silence political opposition in the country.<\/p>\n

Tunisian President Kais Saied assumed sweeping executive powers in a series of moves that started on\u00a0July 25 last year<\/a>\u00a0and his opponents have branded a coup.<\/p>\n

Saied sacked the Ennahdha-supported government and suspended parliament, presented himself as the ultimate interpreter of the constitution and also took steps to rule by decree.<\/p>\n

\u2018Arbitrary\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bhiri suffers from hypertension and diabetes and has had heart issues. His blood pressure was still high and \u201chis kidneys are beginning to struggle\u201d due to dehydration, the hospital medics said. \u201cSaying he is stable would be saying a lot,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Wednesday, Ennahdha lawmaker Samir Dilou, citing medical sources, had told reporters that Bhiri was \u201cbetween life and death\u201d and that his wife and children were on standby.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who ordered his kidnapping must assume their responsibilities,\u201d he added, referring to Saied and his interior minister, Taoufik Charfeddine.<\/p>\n

The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) said on Wednesday Bhiri\u2019s detention was \u201cnot only arbitrary but also illegal\u201d, decrying that he was \u201carrested without a warrant\u201d and that his location was \u201ckept secret\u201d until his admission to hospital.<\/p>\n

The public prosecutor\u2019s office said on Tuesday that an investigation had been opened after it received a report \u201cfrom services combating terrorism and organised crime\u201d.<\/p>\n

It said a Syrian couple had allegedly been assigned false identity documents and nationality certificates while Bhiri was head of the justice ministry.<\/p>\n

Saied has denied the coup allegations and promised to uphold rights and freedoms won in Tunisia\u2019s 2011 revolution that toppled longtime ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and led to the so-called Arab Spring uprisings across the region.<\/p>\n

Civil society groups and\u00a0Saied\u2019s opponents, however, have expressed fear<\/a>\u00a0of a slide back to authoritarianism for the only democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, local media said Tunisia\u2019s judicial system has decided to prosecute 19 politicians, including Ennahdha chief Rached Ghannouchi, for alleged electoral offences.<\/p>\n

The accused will be required to appear in court on January 19, the Tunis court of first instance said in a statement quoted by local media.<\/p>\n

Human Rights Watch warned late last month that Tunisian authorities were using \u201crepressive\u201d dictatorship-era laws to snuff out criticism of the president.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Doctors in Tunisia have expressed alarm about the health of Noureddine Bhiri, the deputy chairman of the Ennahdha party, who has been refusing food or medication since his arrest last week, a human rights body has said. The 63-year-old, who was\u00a0arrested by plainclothes officers\u00a0on Friday and later accused of possible \u201cterrorism\u201d offences, suffers from several […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"Aljazeera","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":""},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,31],"tags":[177,179,178],"class_list":["post-1645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-north-africa","tag-hunger-striking-politician","tag-noureddine-bhiri","tag-tunisia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}