Over 400 Leaders Demand Release of Tunisian Political Prisoner Rached Ghannouchi
An international appeal signed by over 400 former heads of state, scholars, and human rights leaders from more than 30 countries demands the immediate release of Rached Ghannouchi.
Washington D.C. – More than 400 former heads of state, scholars, and civil society leaders from over 30 countries have signed an international appeal demanding the immediate and unconditional release of Sheikh Rached Ghannouchi, an 85-year-old Tunisian scholar and former speaker of parliament sentenced in June 2026 to life in prison plus an additional 30 years.
The appeal has garnered signatures from a broad, ideologically diverse coalition. Signatories include Moncef Marzouki, former President of Tunisia; Abdullah Gül, former President of Turkey; and Mustafa Cerić, former Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina, alongside over 400 professors, scholars, and experts from leading universities and human rights organizations across the United States, Europe, and the Muslim world.
"This is a global chorus of former presidents, scholars, and human rights defenders — people who do not agree on much else — saying with one voice that an 85-year-old man should not die in prison for his political beliefs," stated Radwan A. Masmoudi, Ph.D., President of CSID. "We are calling on the Tunisian government, and on every government that values due process, to act now, before it is too late."
Ghannouchi, president of Tunisia's Ennahdha movement, served as speaker of the country's parliament from 2019 to 2021. He has been imprisoned since April 2023. His June 2026 conviction followed a closed-door trial that his defense lawyers and international observers describe as political rather than judicial, conducted in a climate where courts have operated under executive influence since 2021.
Signatories emphasize that supporting Ghannouchi's release does not require agreement with his political views, stating that proper responses to political disagreement in a democracy involve debate, elections, and peaceful competition, not imprisonment. The appeal also calls for the release of all political prisoners and the restoration of judicial independence in Tunisia.