The health of Tunisian politician Abdelhamid Jelassi is deteriorating due to the lack of adequate cancer care in prison for the past two years, his wife and former MP Munya Ibrahim has confirmed. She said that there is now a “serious threat to the life of this political prisoner” who has been “forcibly detained” since February 2023.
“His condition requires urgent care,” Ibrahim told Arabi21. “The prison administration is dealing with Abdelhamid Jelassi’s health conditions with extreme and unjustified slowness, and he is in great danger.”
She pointed out that his life is threatened due to the prison conditions, the restrictions imposed on him, and his deprivation of the simplest necessities. “Such restrictions and deprivations are the harshest on political detainees and prisoners of conscience.”
Describing the charges under which her husband is being held as “fabricated,” Ibrahim pointed out that the authorities even deprive him of “books and letters” on top of the other pressures imposed on him.
Tunisia’s Ennahda movement confirmed yesterday that it holds the authorities responsible for Jelassi’s health condition and everything that might result from the deterioration of his health and the “failure to provide him with the required care and treatment.” The movement renewed its call to release Jelassi and all political detainees and to put an end to the attacks on their freedoms and “violations” of their rights.
Jelassi is one of the most prominent activists in the Tunisian political arena and is serving a 17-year sentence. He was arrested two years ago along with a number of Ennahda leaders and opponents of President Kais Saied’s rule and charged with conspiracy against state security.
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