Jailed Tunisian opposition leader plans hunger strike

The jailed leader of Tunisia’s main opposition party has said he’s going on hunger strike until restrictions on him and other prisoners are lifted.

Rached Ghannouchi, 82, who leads the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, was arrested in April and sentenced to a year in prison for incitement.

He is the most high-profile of more than 20 critics of Tunisia’s President Kais Saied to have been detained this year.

President Saied, who was elected in 2019, has been accused of mounting a power grab since dissolving the country’s parliament, curbing the judiciary and giving himself powers to rule by decree.