Summary:

On 19 July 2022, Rached Ghannouchi, the former speaker of the now dissolved Tunisian Parliament and long-serving leader of Ennahdha, Tunisia’s Islamist movement, was given leave to return home after being questioned by the Anti-Terrorism Court on charges of money laundering and terrorist financing. Ghannouchi’s assets were ordered frozen by the court due to an investigation into the alleged illegal use of foreign funds in an Ennahdha-linked charity.

Analysis:  

The 81-year-old Ghannouchi remains a polarizing figure in Tunisian politics, and continues to function as a convenient bogeyman against which liberalizing forces can mobilize. This timing of Ghannouchi’s current legal troubles appear to be convenient political theater orchestrated in the run-up to President Kais Saied’s Constitutional Referendum with the intent of mobilizing Tunisia’s left-leaning voters, many of whom continue to view Ghannouchi and Ennahdha as the source of the country’s economic and political woes.