Tunisian MP unveils Ennhadha’s involvement in coup d’etat

Zouhair Makhlouf says he has evidence of Islamist Ennahdha party’s committing all acts of Islamic State group, including bombings and coup d’etat during late president Ben Ali’s rule.

TUNIS – Tunisia’s member of parliament Zouhair Makhlouf said on Tuesday that he has evidence of leading Islamist Ennahdha party’s involvement in terrorist bombings and violence during late president Zine Elabidine Ben Ali’s rule.

In an interview aired on private radio station “IFM” and made available on social media, Makhlouf said that in the previous era, Ennahdha used all acts of the Islamic State group, including bombings and coup d’etat.

"I have proofs about those plans," he told IFM, adding that the evidence he had was not in the possession of the Tunisian state.

Makhlouf said he was ready to be held accountable if he were investigated for his information and evidence.

"There was an apparatus that managed the movement and plans to bring in weapons and bombs and carry out monitoring and exploration operations to target several security installations in the Nabeul and El-Morouj areas and so on," he said.

“Ennahdha movement set out a three-phase plan: The first was reassure and appeasement; the second was stubbornness and the third was imposing freedoms to reach a constitutional vacuum,” he added.

Makhlouf explained that the constitutional vacuum would be created by the assassination of Ben Ali and his successors, allowing Ennahdha to grab power.

His accusations are likely to shake the public opinion in Tunisia, especially as Ennahdha has been accused by its opponents of setting up a secret apparatus which was behind the assassinations that targeted political opponents Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi.

Ennahdha was also accused of having ties with extremist Salafist currents, making Tunisia an incubator for militants and expelling Tunisian youth to fight in conflict zones, especially in Syria and Libya.

Makhlouf’s statements came at a time when Parliament Speaker and Ennhadha leader Rached Ghannouchi is facing huge criticism from opposition parties for backing the Turkish-Qatari axis and serving Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's interests in Libya.

It is expected that the People's Assembly will hold a plenary session on Wednesday to question Ghannouchi about his recent contact with Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, congratulating him on capturing the Al-Watiya military air base from the Libyan National Army.

The Popular Front deputy Mongi Rahoui wrote Tuesday on his Facebook page that he believed that “the union of democratic and progressive forces will contribute to the establishment of a serious process to withdraw confidence from those who do not deserve it in order to fight against the policies that have sabotaged the country.”

“To all democratic and progressive forces, let us be a single voice to withdraw confidence in Rached Ghannouchi,” said Rahoui.

He told Kapitalis that “we must put an end to the practices of Rached Ghannouchi and those who are behind him and who aim to light the fire in Libya, by a Zionist project, under the leadership of Turkey, base of the Muslim Brotherhood.”