Government Refuses Visa to Hizb-ut-Tahrir Claims Party Spokesman
Ridha Belhaj, the spokesman of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, an Islamist party with branches throughout the Middle East, claimed that the party was rejected for a visa to operate in Tunisia for the second time. The ultraconservative party, which seeks to establish an Islamic Caliphate, had previously applied for a visa last year.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir, or the Liberation Party, filed an application for a license on May 14th, 2012. The government’s verdict arrived two days before the two-month deadline for visa application decisions. The party was notified of the rejection in a correspondence from the Prime Ministry, which was considered “bizarre” by Belhaj.
“The correspondence reached us outside of working hours in the late afternoon. It was stamped on the 6th of June, but reached us on July 12th. I don’t understand why the letter took more than a month to arrive,” complained Mr. Belhaj.
Mr. Belhaj told Tunisia-Live that the government did not base its refusal on any legal documents. Instead, it merely listed 15 points as the basis for the refusal, including references to Hizb-ut-Tahrir’s proposed Caliphate constitution and various statements from the party.
“The 15 points focused on what they said were problems within our party. They brought up issues like our ties with foreign organizations, how we ‘monopolize’ Islam, how we refuse membership with global organizations like the International Monetary Fund, etcetera … The formulation of the correspondence was prohibitive. They’re trying to impose impossible conditions on us,” lamented Mr. Belhaj.
Ridha Belhaj considered the rejection as proof of the current government’s “fear” of Hizb-ut-Tahrir.
“Hizb-ut-Tahrir is a gigantic party. Although our legal status is unrecognized, we remained active and even submitted a constitutional proposal. We have also actively participated in the revolution. Some of our members were martyrs of the revolution. The rejection was more political than legal.”
Mr. Belhaj indicated that the party won’t reapply for a visa, stating that “we won’t beg. We will just declare ourselves. We don’t need legal recognition to pursue our activities.”
The Prime Ministry was unavailable to comment on their rejection of Hizb-ut-Tahrir’s visa.
Update 5:30 pm: The Prime Ministry has released a statement via their official Facebook page stating that no final decision has been taken regarding Hizb-ut-Tahrir. According to this announcement the Prime Ministry told the party to amend their platform so that it complies with Tunisian law, but did not officially refuse the party a visa.
Source : tunisia-live.net