Tunisia: Ghannouchi’s daughter says family denied information after his collapse in prison

The daughter of jailed Tunisian Ennahda leader Rached Ghannouchi said his family had been denied all contact with him and information about his condition for more than a week after the 84-year-old reportedly fainted amid high temperatures and was taken to hospital.

Concerns have emerged over the opposition leader’s health after an eyewitness said she saw him lose consciousness inside Mornaguia Prison.

“Where is my father? Where are they hiding him? Why prevent visits?” Soumaya Ghannouchi said in a video posted on Instagram.

She said lawyers seeking to visit him at the prison were told he had been transferred to hospital. But when a lawyer and her mother went to the hospital, authorities refused them entry or any information, she added.

“The last thing we heard from the lawyers was that my father felt dizzy and fainted during the visit due to heat exhaustion,” she said, adding that temperatures inside the prison had exceeded 50 degrees Celsius.

Ghannouchi said her father had Parkinson’s disease and a thyroid disorder requiring specialised care and described his detention in a cell without cooling as a threat to his life, accusing the justice system of pursuing "revenge".

"Wasn't it enough to sentence him to over 150 years in prison on fabricated, absurd charges that no rational mind would believe, along with a life sentence and 10 years of administrative probation?" she said.

Ghannouchi, a former parliament speaker and leader of the Ennahda movement, has been jailed since April 2023 amid an intensified crackdown on political opponents by President Kais Saied’s government.

The leader's imprisonment has come to symbolise the broader campaign against opposition figures that followed Saied’s suspension of parliament, dismissal of the government and move to rule by decree in July 2021. Critics described those measures as a coup against Tunisia’s democratic transition.

The leader's daughter demanded access to his medical file and information about his treatment and medication, calling this a basic right of a prisoner, his family and his lawyers.

Ghannouchi also said Tunisian President Kais Saied and Justice Minister Leila Jaffel “morally, politically and legally responsible” for any harm suffered by her father.