TUNIS: Jailed Tunisian media mogul, Nabil Karoui, one of the front-runners in the country’s presidential polls this weekend, started a hunger strike on Thursday to protest his imprisonment, a source in his campaign said.
Last month, Karoui, 56, was arrested on charges of money laundering and tax evasion. He is now in a prison in the capital Tunis pending further questioning.
His lawyers have accused the government of pressuring judicial authorities to block his release, an accusation the government has denied.
“Karoui has already begun a hunger strike in protest against his continuing jailing during the election campaign,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
There was no immediate comment from authorities.
Karoui is among 26 contenders running in Tunisia’s early presidential vote scheduled for Sunday.
Campaigns are to end on Friday when a Tunisian court is expected to decide on a new request from Karoui’s lawyers for his release.
Other presidential contenders include incumbent Prime Minister Youssef Chahed and the deputy head of the Ennahda movement, Abdelfattah Morou.
Presidential elections were pushed forward to September 15 after Tunisia’s first democratically elected president, Beji Caid Essebsi, died in July, five months before the end of his term.
Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring revolts, is widely seen as the sole democratic success story of the 2010-11 uprisings.
Meanwhile, media magnate Nabil Karoui’s run for president was testing the rules of Tunisia’s young democracy even before he was put in custody last month charged with tax fraud and money laundering.
As his unlicensed news channel broadcasts footage of him doling out aid to the poor, Karoui, 56, is campaigning from behind bars, denying accusations he attributes to political chicanery.
With Tunisia holding only its third free vote since its 2011 revolution, Karoui’s candidacy has raised questions over what role money and the media should play, and brought accusations that the government is interfering with the judicial process.
If he beats the 25 other candidates to the presidency, but is then convicted and barred from office, it could prompt outrage among his voters — and a political crisis in Tunisia.
However, with the first round of voting this Sunday, and a second round due in October or November, no date has yet been set for a verdict that would declare him guilty or innocent, though a lesser hearing on Friday may release him for now.
Recent opinion polls put Karoui ahead of the other candidates who include liberal Prime Minister Youssef Chahed and the moderate Ennahda party’s Abdelfattah Mourou.
— Agencies
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