Tunisian influential businessman Kamel Eltaief arrested: Lawyers

Tunisian police on Saturday arrested powerful businessman Kamel Eltaief, a former confident of late president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, as well as political activist Khayam Turki, their lawyers said.

Eltaief, 68, was arrested at his home in the capital Tunis, lawyer Nizar Ayed said without providing further details.

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Many Tunisians, especially supporters of the Ennahdha, saw Eltaief as a symbol of past corruption in the North African nation.

The influential power-broker was involved in the 1987 coup that forced former president Habib Bourguiba from power on medical grounds, and was long considered a crony of his successor Ben Ali.

Eltaief later fell out of grace with Ben Ali in 1992 in a feud with the former dictator’s wife Leila Trabelsi.

After the fall of Ben Ali in 2011, the businessman moved closer to the opposition.

In 2012 he was investigated for “conspiracy against state security,” but no charges were brought against him and the case was closed in 2014.

Political activist Turki, 58, had once been considered as a potential candidate to head the government after the resignation of premier Elyes Fakhfakh in 2020, and belongs to the social democratic Ettakatol party.

Turki’s lawyer Abdelaziz Essid, who said his client was not known to be wanted by the authorities, said he was arrested in an early morning police raid.

“He was taken to an unknown destination,” said Essid, adding Turki had not been “facing any legal proceedings” to justify his arrest. No further details were immediately available.

Ettakatol was allied with the Ennahdha party within the government between 2011 and 2014, before the latter became part of the opposition.

Ennahdha condemned Turki’s arrest and called for his “immediate” release.

Tunisia has seen a spike in the arrest and prosecution of politicians, journalists and others since President Kais Saied seized wide-ranging powers in a dramatic move against parliament in July 2021.

Since then, Saied’s opponents have accused him of authoritarianism in the birthplace of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.

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