Tunisian Brotherhood Member Rafik Abdel Salam Sentenced to 13 Years of Hard Labor
The Tunisian judiciary has sentenced Rafik Abdessalem, a senior leader in the Ennahda movement and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, to 13 years in prison with “immediate enforcement.”
Additionally, the First Investigating Judge at the Judicial Financial Hub decided to extend the pretrial detention of Sihem Bensedrine, the former president of the Truth and Dignity Commission, for an additional four months pending the case against her.
The investigating judge had previously issued a detention warrant against Bensedrine on charges related to falsifying the final report of the Truth and Dignity Commission after the revolution.
Rafik Abdessalem, formerly known as Rafik Bouchlaka, is the son-in-law of Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of the Ennahda movement. He was being prosecuted in a case concerning conspiracy against state security.
The ruling was issued by the Criminal Chamber specialized in terrorism cases at the Tunis Primary Court and is subject to appeal.
Activists claim that Ghannouchi’s son-in-law is the “black box” of the so-called “kingdom of money and terrorism” in Tunisia. He is a member of Ennahda’s political bureau and served as Tunisia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs in the first Troika government from 2012 to 2014.
Abdessalem rose politically after 2011, and observers in Tunisia describe him as the “keeper of the Ennahda movement’s suspicious funds.”
He is considered one of the most influential figures within the Islamist movement, with external connections that enabled him to oversee questionable financing through his network in Britain, Turkey, and Europe since fleeing Tunisia in the early 1990s, ultimately settling in London in the early 2000s.
As Foreign Minister, he played a direct role in facilitating the travel of jihadists to conflict zones.
Rafik Abdessalem is also accused of embezzling a $1 million grant from China, which was allegedly transferred directly into his personal bank account while he was serving as Foreign Minister.
