A former justice minister and senior figure in Tunisia’s Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, under house arrest since December, was released Tuesday but remains under investigation on “terrorism” charges, the government said.
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Noureddine Bhiri had been detained by plainclothes police officers on New Years’ Eve and placed under house arrest — as was Ennahdha staffer Fethi Baldi.

That came five months after President Kais Saied sacked the Ennahdha-backed government.

The 63-year-old Bhiri, who suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure and a heart condition, had been on a hunger strike since he was detained.

He had agreed to undergo treatment for his hypertension at a hospital in the northern city of Bizerte, where he has been since the second day of his detention.

Ennahdha confirmed he had been released, publishing a video of Bhiri arriving by ambulance at his house in Tunis.

The party, which has repeatedly denied Bhiri’s involvement in “terrorism”, had warned multiple times his life was in danger.
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Interior Minister Taoufik Charfeddine said Tuesday the men’s house arrest had “expired”, but added the judiciary would “complete the necessary enquiries and judicial measures on their cases”.

Their release came a day after Saied inaugurated a “temporary” council of judges, replacing an independent watchdog he abolished weeks ago, saying it had been “infiltrated” by Ennahdha.

The party has played a central role in Tunisian politics since the revolution that overthrew dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.

But it has since become a principal target of Saied, who in July sacked the government and froze the Ennahdha-dominated parliament, later moving to rule by decree.

While some Tunisians, tired of a system seen as corrupt, have backed Saied’s moves, his opponents and civil society groups have voiced fears of a slide back to the authoritarianism of Ben Ali.
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