TUNIS, Tunisia

The leader of Tunisia’s Ennahda movement, Rached Ghannouchi, started a hunger strike on Monday in solidarity with political prisoners, according to his defense team.

Ghannouchi is currently serving a 3-year prison sentence on charges of receiving foreign contributions.

“Ghannouchi staged a hunger strike in solidarity with hunger-striking detainees and all oppositionists in Tunisian prisons," his defense team said in a statement.

He called on Tunisians to "stick to a democratic Tunisia that embraces everyone based on principles of freedom, justice, law, and judicial independence," the statement added.

A Tunisian court sentenced Ghannouchi to three years in prison on Feb. 1 on accusations of receiving foreign funding for his movement.

His hunger strike came one day after six Tunisian prisoners held on charges of conspiring against state security staged a hunger strike on Sunday.

Tunisia has been in the throes of a deep political crisis that has aggravated the country's economic conditions since 2021 when President Kais Saied ousted the government and dissolved parliament.

Ghannouchi was a speaker of the dissolved assembly.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Ankara