Tunisia's Ghannouchi free after court hearing

Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of the Islamist Ennahda party and the speaker of the dissolved parliament, was questioned in a Tunis court by the anti-terror unit on Tuesday before being released ahead of a national referendum on a new constitution.

Ghannouchi has been under investigation since last month over suspicion of corruption and money laundering relating to money transfers from abroad to the Ennahda-affiliated charity Namaa Tunisia Association.

As part of the same investigation, Tunisian authorities last month arrested former prime minister and one-time Ennahdha leader Hamadi Jebali on money laundering charges. Jebali was later released, but is due to face questioning on the allegations on Wednesday.

Earlier this month, a court ordered the freezing of the bank accounts of Mr Ghannouchi and a dozen members of his family and his party, including Jebali, as part of this investigation.

In June, Mr Ghannouchi was handed a ban from travelling abroad as part of a separate investigation into high-profile political assassinations that rocked the country in 2013.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s activity in Tunisia is tied to that of the political party Ennahda. Founded by Islamist cleric Rached Ghannouchi in 1981 as the Islamic Tendency Movement (ITM), the party drew inspiration from Muslim Brotherhood and its ideology.

In May 2016, Ennahda divorced itself from its previously Islamist agenda, pledging to pursue a “Muslim democracy” in place of an Islamic state. Despite this formal platform change, Ghannouchi has also refused to renounce ties with the global Brotherhood movement, casting further skepticism on the sincerity of his new platform.