Tunisia Won’t Hand Over Baghdadi to NTC Until Fair Trial Guarantees Provided, Nominee President Marzouki

Mr Moncef Marzouki, who is set to become President of Tunisia says in this interview with Echorouk reporter that bilateral relations with Algeria will be better in the second Republic era, stressing that the Algerian nationals living in Tunisia will be well treated, and detainees’ rights will be rehabilitated, sooner.

“They will be friendly, brotherly, humanitarian, and cooperation based relations,” Mr Marzouki pleaded, stressing that “I’d say also that Algerian nationals, henceforth, will be considered as Tunisians, as we are to welcome them with open heart, and we are to pave the way for brand new relations.”

As for missing Algerian nationals, including Islamist, detained in secret prisons during the dictatorship era, nominee President of Tunisia indicated that “the new authority will work on dealing with all issues, and ultimately resolve all humanitarian pending issues, the sooner, including those related to prisoners, staying, marriage, heritage, and work,” adding that “the rights of all Maghreb nationals in Tunisia will be preserved, because this land is part of the Maghreb region.”

Concerning the issue of former PM in the regime of assassinated Libyan leader Muaamar Gaddafi, who is wanted by the NTC, Mr Marzouki said “The government has not decided yet whether to hand Mr Ali Mahmoud Baghdadi to the NTC or not. But, I should say that as far as we are demanding the Saudi Arabia to hand us over Ben Ali to try him fairly, we do also require from the NTC to provide guarantees of a fair trial for al-Baghdadi. 

Finally, Marzouki has called on the regime of Syrian President, Bashar Assad to stop killing civilians, and stop such practices that Arab peoples have been enduring.”