Ennahda leader accused of helping Tunisians joining ISIS

Former Prime Minister and Ennahda strongman Ali Laarayedh is accused of having facilitated the departure of thousands of Tunisians to Syria to join ISIS, according to RFI on March 26th. 

The accusations relate to his time as a Minister of Interior between 2011 and 2013, during which 3,000 to 6,000 jihadists left Tunisia for war zones in Syria, Iraq and Libya, mostly through the network of salafi group Ansar Al-Charia.

While the role attributed to Ali Laarayedh in the affair has not yet been revealed by the prosecution, judges are insisting the designation of Ansar Al-Charia as a terrorist group by the Ministry came too late, purportedly showing the leniency of the Minister towards the group. 

Together with a member of security forces, Abdelkrim Laabidi, and Ansar Al-Charia spokesperson Seiffedine Raies, he faces charges including “belonging to a terrorist organisation” and  “apology for terrorism”, both punishable by death. 

Ali Laayaredh had resigned in 2014 amid growing tensions following the killing in 2013 of two figures of the Tunisian left: Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi.

The instruction was first opened in December 2021, months after Kais Saied’s constitutional coup in which the president took over the Parliament’s legislative powers.

Jihadist networks and radicalized mosques suspected of having links with armed Islamist groups have soared in Tunisia amid the security vacuum left by Ben Ali’s removal in 2011.

Ansar Al-Charia was pinned down as one of the main vectors for recruitment in Tunisia, before it was designated as a terrorist organisation in 2013, while Laarayedh was still holding office.

This follows a context of political repression unseen since the 2011 revolution, in which most of the opposition leaders have been jailed and are facing similar charges.

“This is clearly politically motivated. Ali Laarayedh is not being questioned over material facts, but on his purported political responsibility,” says his lawyer Samir Ben Amor.

In a 2023 report, Tunisia director at Human Rights Watch Salsabil Chellali said Larayedh’s prosecution “seems like one more example of President Saied’s authorities trying to silence leaders of the Ennahda party and other opponents by tarring them as terrorists.”

RFI, Maghrebi