Abdelhamid Jelassi, one of the main leaders of the Tunisian Islamist party Ennahda, has begun this Tuesday a hunger strike to denounce the conditions in which he has been detained since February 2023, in a context of increasing pressure against critical voices of President Kais Saied.
His wife, Monia Ibrahim Jelassi, has explained that this is an indefinite hunger strike and that the opposition figure, 67 years old, has also decided to stop taking his medication and reject any medical control in prison, despite his fragile health condition.
The announcement comes after Monia's last visit to the prison, after which she detailed that her husband has sent a letter to the prison administration in which he denounces his detention conditions and demands "books, television, letters, and direct contact with his family," in light of the strong isolation to which he is subjected.
On October 18, 21 years will have passed since Jelassi was imprisoned for the first time, his wife has recalled, emphasizing that the leader has spent periods in prison at different stages of his life. She also pointed out that her husband developed cancer while incarcerated under the regime of then-President Zine el Abidine ben Alí, although he managed to recover after being operated on once released.
According to Mounia, the veteran member of Ennahda is not demanding his immediate release, but rather the respect of minimum rights within the prison: "We accept prison; just let us live like common prisoners," he has stated, denouncing discriminatory treatment between political prisoners and the rest of the inmates.
With this decision, Jelassi, sentenced to ten years in prison for alleged conspiracy, joins the protest initiated last week by the leader of the National Salvation Front, Ahmed Najib Chebbi, and by his fellow Ennahda member, Sahbi Atig, both also on an indefinite hunger strike.
The Tunisian opposition, largely articulated around the National Salvation Front, of which Ennahda is a part — which was the main force of the suspended Parliament in July 2021 — has been warning of an authoritarian drift by President Saied and denounces a political use of justice against its adversaries.