On Tuesday, the spokesperson of the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) expressed concern about the detainment of a member of parliament who is the deputy head of the Ennahda party in Tunisia and another unidentified person in an unknown place for hours.
At a UN news conference, when she said developments in Tunisia over the past month had deepened serious concerns about deteriorating human rights there, OHCHR spokesperson Liz Throssell raised concerns about Noureddine El-Beheiry, who, along with another person, was detained without authorization or explanation and remained under house arrest.
Ennahda, the leading party in the suspended Tunisian parliament, announced that el-Beheiry was abducted by “security forces with civilian clothes and taken to an unknown destination” in a statement on December 31, 2021.
El-Beheiry’s lawyers later filed a criminal complaint against President Kais Saied and Interior Minister Taoufik Charfeddine after the incident. The Tunisian MP was taken to some undisclosed places of detention for several hours, and his family and lawyer did not know his whereabouts.
While initially being put under house arrest, el-Beheiry was later transferred to a hospital on January 2 due to pre-existing health conditions.
