Algeria arrest Tunisia's former presidential candidate Karoui- reports

Nabil Karoui, leader of a liberal party, which got here 2d inside the 2019 presidential election in Tunisia, became arrested Sunday in Algeria, alongside together with his brother MP, Tunisian media introduced.

According to Radio Mosaïque FM (private) on Sunday, Algerian border police arrested Mr. Karoui, chief of the Qalb Tounès celebration, and Ghazi Karoui, within the region of Tébessa, in north-eastern Algeria.

A leader of the Qalb Tounès party, Osama Khélifi, told media on Monday that the party was waiting for "official information" from the Tunisian and Algerian authorities, who have not confirmed the arrest of the two brothers so far.

Tunisia's presidential candidate Nabil Karoui waits for the start of a televised debate with his opponent Kais Saied (not pictured) ahead of Sunday's second-round runoff election in Tunis, Tunisia October 11, 2019. Image: Reuters

"We have not communicated with (Mr.) Karoui for a week," said Khélifi.

The spokesman for the Tunisian courtroom of Kasserine (valuable-west), Riadh Al-Nouioui, informed AFP that "the government are investigating two people suspected of supporting the Karoui brothers to flee" to Algeria.

Founder of the private Tunisian channel Nessma TV, which is partly owned by Silvio Berlusconi, former head of the Italian government, Mr. Karoui has been prosecuted since 2017 in a case of money laundering and tax fraud.

Arrested in 2019, he had spent greater than a month in prison within the centre of the election marketing campaign, which had brought about fears of an instrumentalisation of justice.

Released, he was arrested again last December and released in June, after six months of pre-trial detention.

Mr. Karoui, whose program for the presidential election became focused on anti-Islamism and the combat towards poverty, turned into largely defeated through Kaïs Saïed, an academic new to politics, in opposition to a backdrop of rejection of the elites in strength since the 2011 revolution.

At the end of July, Mr. Saied invoked the constitution to grant himself full powers, dismiss the head of government and suspend parliament.

Since the coup, arrests, travel bans and residence arrest were imposed on judges, contributors of parliament and businessmen, as part of an anti-corruption "purge" promised via Mr. Saied.