Mondher Ounissi

Mondher Ounissi, a physician and university hospital professor specialising in nephrology and kidney transplantation at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Tunis El Manar, and Vice-President of the Ennahdha movement since August 2021, is 58 years old. He has been in prison since September 2023, moving between Mornaguia Civil Prison and Oudhna Civil Prison.
He was arrested at the beginning of September 2023, when the Public Prosecution ordered that he be brought in and placed in police custody; he was later referred to the Judicial Counter-Terrorism Pole in the “audio leaks file”, in addition to other charges relating to the circumstances of the death of former MP Jilani Daboussi. A committal order was issued against him with a murder charge, without his being questioned, in violation of his right to a defence.
On 9 September 2025, he was violently assaulted inside the prison infirmary by a prison officer, who punched and kicked him, after he refused to board the cramped and overheated prisoner transport vehicle that other political detainees had previously denounced. The beating targeted sensitive parts of his body, including his abdomen, despite his chronic kidney disease, and was accompanied by verbal abuse attacking his dignity and that of his mother. Although the prison doctor observed the visible bruises, he was refused a medical certificate documenting the injuries. The General Inspectorate of Prisons attempted to downplay the incident by visiting him the same day and presenting it as an isolated case. His lawyer also revealed, following a visit in May 2025, systematic medical neglect: his condition requires his creatinine level to be measured every 15 days, yet he goes more than a full month without any test, even though, as a specialist physician, he is fully aware of the seriousness of his condition.