TUNIS, Tunisia / ISTANBUL

Tunisia’s opposition figure Jaouhar Ben Mbarek continued his open-ended hunger strike in prison, marking his 17th day without food on Friday.

Ben Mbarek, the cofounder of the country’s main opposition alliance, the National Salvation Front, launched a hunger strike on Oct. 29 in Belli Prison, Nabeul Governorate, demanding his freedom.

"I will continue the hunger strike and struggle with my body until our demands are met,” Ben Mbarek said on Friday evening on Facebook.

He expressed appreciation for those who support him inside Tunisia and abroad and praised “the detainees who went on a hunger strike in solidarity with me, namely the secretary-general of the Republican Party, Issam Chebbi, the head of the Ennahda Party, Rached Ghannouchi, politician Abdelhamid Jelassi, and the leader of the National Salvation Front, Reda Belhaj.”

On Wednesday, his defense team said that Ben Mbarek was "severely assaulted inside his cell after refusing to eat and to end his hunger strike."

A day earlier, Tunisia's General Authority for Prisons and Rehabilitation denied reports on the deterioration of the health conditions of some prisoners as a result of their hunger strike, calling it “fake news and systematic fallacies by some parties.”

Since early 2023, dozens of politicians, journalists, activists, judges, and businessmen have been detained on charges of "attempting to undermine public order and state security," "spying for foreign parties," and "inciting chaos or disobedience," which the opposition describes as part of a "campaign of intimidation" led by President Kais Saied.

Ben Mbarek, who was sentenced to 18 years in April on charges of “conspiracy against state security,” is one of several opposition figures, including former ministers and senior Ennahda officials, prosecuted under the same case.

President Saied has defended the arrests, claiming they target those involved in “plots against the state” and attempted to worsen the economic crisis.