Tunisian authorities escalate pre-election crackdown and arrest Islamists en masse

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Dozens of members of Tunisia’s largest opposition party were arrested this week ahead of the formal start of campaign season for the country’s presidential election, attorneys and officials from the party said Friday.

Ennahda, the Islamist party that rose to power in the aftermath of the country’s Arab Spring, said Friday that tallies collected by its local branches suggested at least 80 men and women from the party had been apprehended as part of a countrywide sweep that ensnared members from 10 regions.

In a statement, Ennahda called the arrests “an unprecedented campaign of raids and violations of the most basic rights guaranteed by law.” The party had counted at least 80 arrests and was in the process of confirming at least 116 total, including six women, attorney Latifa Habbechi said.

Former Minister of Youth and Sports Ahmed Gaaloul, a member of the party’s executive committee and advisor to its imprisoned leader Rached Ghannouchi, said the arrests included high-ranking party officials and had continued through Friday afternoon. Among them were Mohamed Guelwi, a member of the party’s executive committee, and Mohamed Ali Boukhatim, a regional party leader from Ben Arous, a suburb of Tunis.

The mass arrests are the latest to mar an already turbulent election season in Tunisia.

With political apathy rampant and the country’s most prominent opposition figures in prison, President Kais Saied has long been expected to win a second term without significant challenge. But the past few months have seen major upheaval nonetheless. Saied has sacked the majority of his cabinet and authorities have arrested more of his potential opponents. The country’s election authority made up of members he appointed has defied court orders to keep certain challengers off of the October 6 ballot. Campaign season formally begins on Saturday.

Those moves came after months of cascading arrests of journalists, lawyers and leading civil society figures, including many critics of the president charged under a controversial anti-fake news law that human rights groups say has been increasingly used to quash criticism.

Ennahda is still in the process of confirming the nature of each of the arrests. Habbechi, the attorney, said that roughly 20 of the detained had seen their attorneys as of Friday.

Based on documents provided, the party’s defense committee believes those arrested face charges related to Tunisia's anti-terrorism law. “But the questions raised concerned their political activities and their choice of candidate for the upcoming presidential elections,” Habbechi said, noting that some of those detained began interrogations at early Friday morning.

The vast majority of those arrested were senior party members of the party involved in Tunisia’s transitional justice process, which includes Ennahda members who were tortured in the years before President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali became the first Arab dictator toppled in the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.

Habbechi said that roughly 90% were people who were incarcerated under Ben Ali and former president Habib Bourguiba and 70% were older than 60. She added that the names of those arrested corresponded with party documents listing victims of the dictatorship involved in the transitional justice process.

Tunisia’s globally acclaimed transitional justice process is a decade-old initiative designed to help victims who suffered at the hands of the government.

Ennahda is no stranger to having party members arrested. Ghannouchi, the party’s 83-year-old leader, has been in prison since April 2023. Multiple high-ranking officials, including members of its shura council and executive committee have also been arrested over the past year. This week’s arrests are the latest since authorities arrested party secretary general Lajmi Lourimi two months ago. Though the party has for more than three years decried arrests, detentions and legal proceedings against its members, Gaaloul said it had not previously seen arrests on a scale similar to this week.

The arrests came as hundreds of Tunisians protested in the North African nation’s capital, decrying the emergence of what they called a police state ahead of the Oct. 6 election. They were roundly condemned by other parties.

“These arrests come as a sign of further narrowing and deviation of the electoral process aiming at spreading fear and emptying the upcoming election of any chance for a real democratic competition,” Work and Accomplishment, a party led by former Ennahda member Abdellatif Mekki, said in a statement on Friday.

Mekki, who served as Tunisia’s Health Minister from 2011 to 2014, was also arrested in July as part of an investigation into a 2014 murder that his attorneys decried as politically motivated. Tunisia’s election authority has said it will defy an administrative court order and keep him off of next month’s ballot.

Metz reported from Rabat, Morocco.

Tunisian take part in a protest against President Kais Saied ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, on Avenue Habib Bourguiba in the capital Tunis. (AP Photo/Anis Mili)

Tunisian take part in a protest against President Kais Saied ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, on Avenue Habib Bourguiba in the capital Tunis.(AP Photo/Anis Mili)

Tunisian take part in a protest against President Kais Saied ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, on Avenue Habib Bourguiba in the capital Tunis. (AP Photo/Anis Mili)

Tunisian take part in a protest against President Kais Saied ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, on Avenue Habib Bourguiba in the capital Tunis. Banner in Arabic reads "Women against dictatorship." (AP Photo/Anis Mili)

Tunisian take part in a protest against President Kais Saied ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, on Avenue Habib Bourguiba in the capital Tunis. Banner in Arabic reads "Where is sugar? Where is oil? Where is freedom? Where is democracy?" (AP Photo/Anis Mili)

Tunisian take part in a protest against President Kais Saied ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, on Avenue Habib Bourguiba in the capital Tunis. (AP Photo/Anis Mili)

FILE - Tunisia's President Kais Saied speaks during a media conference at an EU Africa summit in Brussels, Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. (Johanna Geron, Pool Photo via AP, File)

PANAMA CITY (AP) — They crossed oceans to get to the U.S., fleeing conflict, religious persecution, poverty and government crackdowns in countries such as Afghanistan, Somalia, Cameroon, China, Pakistan and Iran.

After flying to Central and South America, they bused through countries where they didn’t speak the language and walked through unfamiliar jungle to get to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Within days, they were detained and put on military aircraft that flew nearly 300 of them to Panama as U.S. President Donald Trump sought to accelerate deportations to more complicated destinations.

Panama was supposed to be a stopover. But for those unwilling to return home — mostly out of well-founded fear — Panama sent them to a guarded camp without access to lawyers in the same Darién jungle many had crossed months earlier on their way north.

Over the past week, under legal pressure, the Panamanian government dropped them off at a bus station in the capital with 30 days to figure out where they will go next.

“It feels like the whole world is crushing down on me. It’s like everything is stopping,” said Isha Len, a 29-year-old from Cameroon. “I risked everything, my life, everything, crossing the Darién Gap, just to be sent back.”

Here are the stories that some of the deportees told The Associated Press:

After conflict broke out in her small town, Len crossed Cameroon by car and minibus, then a fisherman friend carried her four hours by boat to Nigeria.

Len, a schoolteacher, flew to Sao Paulo, Brazil, where she said authorities detained her for a month in the airport. From there, she wound north through South America by bus, following other migrants until they reached the Darién Gap.

She walked days through the dangerous jungle that divides Colombia and Panama before boarding buses that carried her through Central America. After being kidnapped for days by a gang in Guatemala, she crossed into southern Mexico, where she took a boat along the Pacific coast to evade authorities. After she landed, she rode eight hours to Mexico City, continuing on by bus and car to Tijuana.

She crossed the U.S. border and presented herself to American authorities.

Artemis Ghasemzadeh left her country in January, fleeing after converting from Islam to Christianity – something that could cost Ghasemzadeh her life in Iran. She flew to Dubai, where she stayed two weeks and then took a flight to South Korea.

From there she flew to Mexico City, staying there for three weeks before going to Tijuana. She crossed the U.S. border on Feb. 9, and was detained for five days, including her birthday.

“For changing your religion, your punishment is death," she said. “We don’t know what will happen."

Wang Qiu said he left home after he was imprisoned for three years for speaking out about democracy and human rights issues.

He flew from Beijing to Cuba, then to the small South American country of Suriname. From there, he traveled by land: through Guyana, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, before trekking through the Darién Gap.

He moved up through Central America and Mexico before being detained after crossing into the U.S. in San Diego.

Qamar Abdi, left for the U.S. on Aug. 17, due to warfare between the government and militants of al-Shabab, which the U.S. recognizes as a terrorist group.

She hopped from buses to shared cars for nearly a month until she reached South Africa. From there, she flew to Sao Paulo, Brazil, and spent the next six months riding buses north.

When she arrived at the northern tip of Colombia, she traveled six days through the Darién Gap, landing in Panama on New Year's Day.

She took buses to the southern Mexican border city of Tapachula, where she was temporarily kidnapped and robbed by a gang. To avoid immigration authorities, she traveled hours packed on a boat with other migrants along Mexico's Pacific coast, then took a bus to Mexico City. She spent two weeks there before driving to Tijuana, where she crossed into the U.S.

Ebrahim Ghezelgechi fled Iran with his wife, Sahar; 10-year-old daughter, Aylin; and 11-year-old son, Sam, on Nov. 21.

The family flew to Brazil, then to Panama and finally Nicaragua. From there, they took buses north to Guatemala, then crossed into southern Mexico by boat. They rode on top of trains and in buses and vans to get to Tijuana.

After Mexico authorities sent them back to the southern part of the country, they took a plane to the resort area of Los Cabos. There, they were detained, had their passports taken and were sent back south again.

They tried getting north a number of times, punted back by Mexican authorities, before eventually paying a driver to take them to Tijuana.

After crossing into the U.S., they were detained in San Diego for a week.

Samin Haider left for Dubai in 2023 after violence surged in his region of Parachinar, which borders Afghanistan and has been plagued for decades by conflicts between Shi’ite and Sunni Muslim communities.

Haider was there for 1 1/2 years before the United Arab Emirates canceled visas for Pakistanis.

Haider then flew to Mexico and traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border with the hopes of seeking asylum.

Now deported to Panama, he still hopes to reach the U.S.

Elham Ghaedi left on Oct. 21, flying to Brazil and then to Venezuela's capital Caracas.

She traveled to Colombia, where took a bus north and then walked five days through the Darién Gap.

She stayed 15 days in a migrant camp in southern Panama before taking a bus through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and to Mexico's southern border. There, migration authorities detained her for six days.

She traveled north to Mexico City, where she spent a month, before boarding a flight to Tijuana. U.S. authorities detained her when she crossed to San Diego.

Omagh fled Afghanistan in 2022 after the takeover of the Taliban because he identified as an atheist and was part of an ethnic minority, something that could put his life in danger.

He first went to Pakistan, where he got a visa for six months, and struggled to get a new one due to his Afghani passport.

He then went to Iran and worked there for 1 1/2 years. But the country wouldn’t accept him as a refugee.

He managed to get a visa to Brazil, which offered a number of Afghan people refuge after the rise of the Taliban, and flew to Sao Paulo in 2024.

Hoping to reunite with friends and family in the U.S., Omagh paid smugglers to move him north through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. He trekked through the Darién Gap, then took buses north through Central America to southern Mexico.

Mexican authorities detained him and dropped him back in southern Mexico a few times before he managed to take a flight to Mexico City and later to the U.S., where he was detained.

“After so much time, I’ve lost hope,” he said.

Afghan migrant Hayatullah Omagh poses for a portrait in Panama City, Monday, March 10, 2025, after being deported from the United States, detained for weeks in a Panamanian immigration camp and released on a temporary humanitarian visa allowing a 30‑day stay. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Elham Ghaedi, a migrant from Iran, poses for a portrait in Panama City, Monday, March 10, 2025, after being deported from the United States, detained for weeks in a Panamanian immigration camp, and released on a temporary humanitarian visa allowing a 30‑day stay. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Samin Haider, left, a migrant from Pakistan, and his cousin Saqlain Sayed, pose for a portrait in Panama City, Monday, March 10, 2025, after being deported from the United States, detained for weeks in a Panamanian immigration camp, and released on a temporary humanitarian visa allowing a 30‑day stay. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Ebrahim Ghezelgechi, right, a migrant from Iran, poses for a portrait with his wife Sahar Bideman and their children Sam and Aylin in Panama City, Monday, March 10, 2025, after they were deported from the U.S., detained for weeks in a Panamanian immigration camp, and released on a temporary humanitarian visa allowing a 30‑day stay. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Qamar Abdi and Filsan Aliin, migrants from Somalia, pose for a portrait at the hotel where they are staying in Panama City, Monday, March 10, 2025, after being deported from the United States, detained for weeks in a Panamanian immigration camp, and released on a temporary humanitarian visa allowing a 30‑day stay. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Wang Qiu, a migrant from China, poses for a portrait in Panama City, Tuesday, March 11, 2025, after being deported from the United States, detained for weeks in a Panamanian immigration camp, and released on a temporary humanitarian visa allowing a 30‑day stay. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Artemis Ghasemzadeh, a migrant from Iran, poses for a portrait in Panama City, Monday, March 10, 2025, after being deported from the United States, detained for weeks in a Panamanian immigration camp, and released on a temporary humanitarian visa allowing a 30‑day stay. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Isha Len, a migrant of Cameroon, poses for a photo in Panama City, Monday, March 10, 2025, after being deported from the U.S., detained for weeks in a Panamanian immigration camp, and released on a temporary humanitarian visa allowing a 30‑day stay. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Migrants who were held in a Panamanian immigration shelter after being deported from the U.S. embraced upon arriving in Panama City on Saturday, March 8, 2025, after authorities gave them 30 days to leave the country. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)