Mohamed Ghariani, the former secretary-general of Ben Ali’s former Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD) party, was arrested on Monday, Tunisian national radio said, a day after Ben Ali’s brother was arrested in Sousse.
The state TAP news agency said Tunisia’s high authority for the realisation of the revolution objectives, political reform and democratic transition approved the ban on high-ranking RCD members from running in a July election for a constituent assembly.
It said those concerned were members who in the last 10 years “had served in positions of responsibility or had supported the ousted president’s bid for the 2014 presidential election”.
A Tunisian judge ruled in March that the RCD was to be disbanded and its funds seized. The interim authorities have called an election on July 24 to choose a national assembly that will rewrite the constitution.
Ben Ali was toppled by mass protests on January 14 after 23 years in power and fled to Saudi Arabia. Several members of his family and security and some of his closest allies were detained shortly after he was forced out.
The caretaker authorities, trying to assert their authority and gain legitimacy in the eyes of protesters who forced Ben Ali to flee, are attacking the vestiges of his 23-year rule.
The interim authorities appointed a new government on March 7 and disbanded the state security apparatus, notorious for human rights abuses under Ben Ali.