Jailed Tunisian opposition leader hospitalised

The head of Tunisia's Islamist movement Ennahdha Rached Ghannouchi greets supporters upon arrival to a police station in Tunis ,on February 21, 2023 (File/AFP)

• The longtime political figure was arrested in 2023 and sentenced to a total of more than 40 years in prison

TUNIS: The jailed leader of Tunisia's Islamist Ennahdha party and key opposition figure Rached Ghannouchi has been hospitalised following a "serious deterioration in his health", his party said on Thursday.
Ennahdha did not say when he was hospitalised nor did it give any details on his condition.
Ghannouchi, 84, "suffered a serious deterioration in his health, which forced the prison administration to urgently transfer him to hospital", it said in a post on Facebook, adding he had been placed under medical surveillance.
The party called for his immediate release, saying he was "being held arbitrarily".
The longtime political figure was arrested in 2023 and sentenced to a total of more than 40 years in prison on various charges, including "conspiracy against the internal security of the state".
He was exiled for 20 years before the 2011 Arab Spring, which brought democracy to Tunisia.
Ennahdha won the subsequent elections and was a powerful force in Tunisian politics for a decade before President Kais Saied's 2021 power grab.