Tunisian authorities arrest senior Ennahda figure Ferjani
The latest arrest of Sayed Ferjani, a leading figure of Ennahda, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Tunisia, is stirring up debates in Tunisian political circles.
Tunisian authorities arrested
Ferjani on January 1. He faces charges of supporting and participating in
terrorist operations in his country.
The Interior Ministry said earlier
that it had arrested two people, including Noureddine Bhiri, another leading
figure of Ennahda, in the light of articles on the state of emergency in
Tunisia.
Bhiri held the position of minister
of justice previously.
Who is Ferjani?
Sayed Ferjani is a former army
officer whose service was terminated by the Tunisian army command. He carries
the nom de guerre 'al-Amin'.
He is a member of the secret
terrorist militia of Ennahda. Ferjani and other Ennahda senior leaders were
involved in a failed coup in 1987.
He was also responsible for the
smuggling of arms into Tunisia via the sea.
Soon after the failed coup, Ferjani
and was put in jail. He was released by a presidential pardon in 1989 after
secret negotiations with the regime of late President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
He then fled to Algeria and then to Sudan
and the UK.
After the Muslim Brotherhood came to
power in Tunisia, Noureddine Bhiri, the former justice minister, appointed Ferjani
as his advisor.
Tunisian media describes Ferjani as
the ''godfather of terrorism'.
He is the mastermind of recruitment
operations in Tunisia for the sake of terrorist organizations operating in
Syria and Iraq.
He did this in cooperation with
foreign intelligence agencies under the cover of jihad.
In reality, Ferjani did this for
money that he channeled to secret accounts in Europe.
