TUNIS: A prominent Tunisian opposition figure has been hospitalized due to severe dehydration after over two weeks on hunger strike, his family said on Friday.
Jawhar Ben Mbarek, co-founder of the National Salvation Front, Tunisia’s main opposition alliance, has been detained since February 2023.
His relatives have warned that his health condition has “severely deteriorated” due to the hunger strike he launched to protest his imprisonment.
His sister, Dalila Ben Mbarek Msaddek, said in a Facebook post that doctors detected “a highly dangerous toxin” affecting Ben Mbarek’s kidneys caused by his protest.
Ben Mbarek “received treatment but refused nutritional supplements” at the hospital where he was transferred on Thursday night, insisting on continuing his now 17-day hunger strike, Msaddek said.
