Tunis, January 30: Leader of Tunisia’s main Islamic party Rachid Ghannouchi is due to return to his homeland from Britain on Sunday after more than 20 years in exile.
Ghannouchi, who had received a life sentence from the Tunisian old regime for plotting against the state, can now return without any hindrance following the ouster of the country’s authoritarian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Ben Ali and his family fled to Saudi Arabia on January 14 after days of street protests put an end to his more than two-decade rule.
Ghannouchi, who left Tunisia shortly after Ben Ali came to power in a 1987 coup, is not expecting to return “triumphantly” and wants to return simply as “a free man,” AFP quoted his spokesmen as saying.
The 69-year-old leader earlier said that he plans to let younger people take over his once outlawed Ennahda (Awakening) movement.
Meanwhile, the new government installed after Ben Ali’s fall has unveiled unprecedented democratic freedoms, including lifting media restrictions, releasing political prisoners and registering banned parties.
Ghannouchi also emphasized that he does not plan to run for president, but he wants to turn his movement into a political party that will take part in the country’s first democratic elections.
——-Agencies