Law enforcement is on alert in Tunisia. Five individuals, imprisoned for their involvement in “terrorist” attacks, escaped from the country’s largest prison, the Interior Ministry announced on Tuesday.
“The administration of Mornaguia prison (near Tunis) indicated that five dangerous individuals, liable to prison sentences linked to terrorist cases, escaped at dawn,” said the ministry which released their identities and photos.
“The Somali” among the fugitives
In the evening, the ministry announced the dismissal of two senior executives: the general director of special services and the central director of general intelligence. The director of Mornaguia prison was also dismissed on instructions from the Ministry of Justice which announced “other decisions to come based on the investigation”.
Among the fugitives is Ahmed Melki, 44, nicknamed “the Somali”, involved in assassinations of opposition politicians, claimed by Islamist extremists. Arrested in 2014, he was the main accused for the murder on July 25, 2013 of left-wing MP Mohamed Brahmi. He was also involved in the assassination on February 6, 2013 in Tunis of left-wing opponent Chokri Belaïd.
These assassinations, which shocked Tunisian public opinion, triggered a serious political crisis which forced the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party to cede the power it had held since the democratic revolution of 2011 to a government of technocrats. The investigation into these assassinations has still not been completed ten years after the events.
A rise of jihadist groups after the 2011 revolution
Given the dangerousness of the individuals sought, the ministry said it had “sensitized” all its units to “intensify the search with the aim of arresting them as quickly as possible”. The ministry also called for any information that could help them to be found to be reported to the police.
After the popular revolt of 2011 which caused the fall of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia experienced a rise in jihadist groups which counted thousands of members abroad and in the North African country. Attacks in Tunisia have left dozens of tourists dead (Sousse and Tunis in 2015) and security forces.
According to a Crisis Group report dating from June 2021, there were at the time, “out of approximately 2,200 people imprisoned under the 2015 anti-terrorism law, 160 individuals convicted of having committed jihadist violence on Tunisian territory”, alongside around ten Tunisian jihadists, extradited and repatriated to Tunisia.