Former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki on Saturday accused Tunisian security services of violently assaulting his brother Najib.
On his official Facebook page, Al-Marzouki said, “With regard to the violent physical assault that my brother Najeeb Al-Marzouki was subjected to two days ago, I was satisfied when I was informed of the attack in a blog post without comment or accusation.”
“Today, after an in-depth discussion with my brother and my obtaining the details, I can raise the finger of accusation based on data that the operation took place after monitoring, planning and implementation in a precise place and timing,” he added.
Al-Marzouki said that the aggressor is a person trained in the arts of physical struggle and is not an amateur criminal, explaining that his brother practiced karate in his youth for many years, “which made him confront the aggressor and inflict wounds on him that dissuaded him from continuing to attack a person who thought he was a predator and contented himself with escaping with his mobile phone.”
Al-Marzouki indicated that half an hour after the attack, an unknown person called his brother’s wife’s number to inform her that her husband was wounded and in a critical condition, and that the Civil Protection took him to a hospital in the capital, “with the clear intention of intimidation and abuse.”
And he considered that “all these data are signed by the political police, which we saw in his epic tour and tour against Al-Buhairi (Vice-President of the Ennahda Movement) and his wife, and how accustomed I am to his methods and techniques, his experience over 3 decades.”
The term “political police” is applied to the security services during the era of former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (1987-2011), who were pursuing political opponents.
On Friday, Ennahda held President Kais Saied and Interior Minister Tawfiq Sharaf El-Din directly responsible for the kidnapping of the movement’s deputy leader, Noureddine El-Beheiry, while the authorities have not responded to the news of his arrest until now.
Al-Marzouki addressed a speech to the perpetrators of the attack, “For those who carried out the two simultaneous operations as threatening messages, I say that you are nothing but a few boys, playing with adults in an arena for which you are not qualified and do not know the seriousness of what you are doing.”
On December 22, a Tunisian court issued a preliminary ruling to imprison Marzouki (currently residing in France) in absentia for 4 years, on charges of assaulting external state security,” while the former president denied his accusation of inciting against his country.
