Global Courant
Sahbi Atig has been hospitalized in intensive care after 25 days of hunger strike in protest of his imprisonment.
An opposition leader’s health is rapidly deteriorating in a Tunisian prison after nearly a month of hunger strike, his wife says
Sahbi Atig, a member of the Shura council for the moderate opposition Ennahdha party, was arrested on May 6 after security forces prevented him from flying to attend a conference in Turkey.
He was admitted to intensive care after a 25-day hunger strike in protest of his imprisonment, his wife, Zainab al-Marayhi, said.
Atig was charged with money laundering and false testimony. He has maintained his innocence, and his family and Ennahdha said the allegations were made as part of President Kais Saied’s crackdown on his political opponents.
Al-Marayhi said Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news website that she visited her husband on Monday, but prison guards cut short her visit because of Atig’s frail condition. She said he struggled to get up and even passed out at one point.
“My husband has lost about 20 kg (44 pounds) and is suffering from abdominal and heart pain. He is being held in a room with several prisoners smoking cigarettes, and this is deteriorating his health condition, and he needs a wheelchair,” Al-Marayhi told the Qatar-based website.
The Arab Human Rights Organization in the UK said Atig is present immediate need of medical intervention and adequate health care to protect “his right to life”.
“Barring Atig’s wife from visiting him is a clear violation of his right to contact his relatives,” the group said.
Saied’s crackdown on the opposition has sparked fears that Tunisia is slipping back into dictatorship more than 10 years after the first pro-democracy protests broke out in the so-called Arab Spring.
Since Saied’s suspension of parliament, numerous opposition figures have been jailed, many from the Ennahdha party, formerly the largest in parliament.
