Tunisia bars family, lawyers from seeing Ghannouchi after prison collapse

No word on jailed Tunisian opposition leader Ghannouchi for 11 days, his son tells Al Jazeera.The son of jailed Tunisian opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi says his family and lawyers have been unable to see or contact the 85-year-old for 11 days since he was hospitalised after collapsing in prison.In an interview with Al Jazeera on Monday, Moadh Ghannouchi said the last time lawyers saw his father was days before he temporarily lost consciousness on July 17, and that requests to visit him in hospital, including one submitted to the public prosecutor, had been refused, leaving the family with no confirmation of his whereabouts or condition.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Jailed opposition leader Ghannouchi faints in Tunisian prison due to heatlist 2 of 3Tunisians mark fifth year of emergency rule with calls for Saied to golist 3 of 3Thousands rally against Tunisia’s president five years after power grabend of list“It is like a situation of enforced disappearance,” he said.Ghannouchi said his father, who has high blood pressure and difficulty breathing, had been left exposed to a severe heatwave in a prison with no air conditioning.“We hold the authorities fully responsible for his condition,” he said, alleging that his father’s confinement in a stiflingly hot prison was intended to worsen his health.“It was not enough to imprison him – they want to torment him further,” Moadh told Al Jazeera.“This is stressful for us and certainly for him as well because he’s used to always having a number of visits every week from lawyers and from family – so it has been 11 days cut off from everything, from every visit, from everyone.”Ghannouchi said conflicting rumours had spread on social media, with some placing his father at the Rabta public hospital in Tunis, others at a military hospital, and some claiming he had suffered a heart attack. But the family has received no official information, he said, with the authorities refusing to communicate.