Tunisia’s Ennahda says its deputy head abducted

TUNIS

Tunisia’s Ennahda Movement said on Friday that its deputy head Noureddine El-Beheiry was abducted and taken to an unknown destination.

In a statement, the movement said: “The Movement’s Vice-President and member of parliament Noureddine El-Beheiry was abducted, today, morning.”

According to the statement, El-Beheiry was abducted by “security forces with civilian clothes and taken to an unknown destination.”

“During the abduction, security forces rebuked El-Beheiry’s wife Saeeda al-Akrimi,” the statement added.

The movement “strongly" denounced the incident that as "predicting Tunisia’s entry into the tunnel of tyranny and the liquidation of political opponents outside the framework of the law by the coup regime after its failure to manage the ruling affairs.”

Tunisian authorities are yet to comment on Ennahda’s statement.

El-Beheiry, 63, is a lawyer and politician and served as the justice minister in 2011-2013 and then became a minister accredited to the prime minister in 2013-2014.

Tunisian President Kais Saied ousted the government on July 25, suspended parliament, and assumed executive authority. While he insists that his "exceptional measures" are meant to "save" the country, critics have accused him of orchestrating a coup.

*Writing by Bassel Barakat