Sahbi Atig has been hospitalised in intensive care after 25-day starvation strike in protest of his imprisonment.

An opposition chief’s well being is deteriorating quickly in a Tunisian jail after an virtually monthlong starvation strike, his spouse says

Sahbi Atig, a member of the Shura Council for the reasonable opposition Ennahdha occasion, was arrested on May 6 after safety forces prevented him from flying to attend a convention in Turkey.

He was hospitalised in intensive care after starvation placing for 25 days in protest of his imprisonment, his spouse, Zainab al-Marayhi ,mentioned.

Atig was charged with cash laundering and false testimony. He has maintained his innocence, and his household and Ennahdha mentioned the fees have been introduced as a part of President Kais Saied’s crackdown on his political opponents.

Al-Marayhi instructed Al-Araby Al-Jadeed information web site that she visited her husband on Monday however jail guards minimize her go to quick resulting from Atig’s frail situation. She mentioned he struggled to face and even fainted at one level.

“My husband has lost about 20kg [44 pounds] and suffers from stomach and heart pains. He is kept in a room with several prisoners who smoke cigarettes, and this worsens his health condition, and he needs a wheelchair,” Al-Marayhi instructed the Qatari-based web site.

The Arab Organisation for Human Rights within the UK mentioned Atig is in immediate need of medical intervention and ample healthcare to guard “his right to life”.

“Preventing Atig’s wife from visiting him constitutes a clear violation of his right to contact his family members,” the group mentioned.

Saied’s crackdown in opposition to the opposition has raised fears of Tunisia regressing again right into a dictatorship greater than 10 years after the primary pro-democracy protests broke out within the so-called Arab Spring.

Since Saied’s suspension of parliament, quite a few opposition figures have been jailed, lots of them from the Ennahdha occasion, previously the most important in parliament.