Dubai: Tunisia has called in the ambassador of Turkey to protest the ‘dangerous’ remarks made against Tunisia’s President Beji Qaid Al Sebsi by Wagdy Ghoneim, a wanted Egyptian who is residing in Turkey.
In a video clip widely distributed in Tunisia, Ghoneim verbally attacked the Tunisian President, who had called for gender equality in inheritance law and changing the law that forbids Tunisian women from marrying a non-Muslim.
In a statement issued by the Tunisian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, the ministry said that it had summoned the Turkish Ambassador to express its severe condemnation of Ghoneim’s statement and question how he had taken advantage of his residency in Turkey to attack the state of Tunisia and its symbols.
The statement urged Turkish authorities to quickly respond to these shocking remarks and take necessary measures against Ghoneim.
Under the current law, a Tunisian Muslim woman cannot marry a non-Muslim unless he converts to Islam and is given a certificate from the religious authorities indicating he has become a Muslim.
Any marriage contracted between a Tunisian woman and a non-Muslim abroad is not validated by the authorities in Tunisia and remains null and void.
“The change in the laws will be made and it will be much sooner than you think,” Saida Guarrach, spokeswoman for the Tunisian presidency, told a local radio.
In April 30, an Egyptian court had sentenced Ghoneim to death in absentia for establishing an illegal organisation that incited violence against security forces.
The Egyptian authorities also presented memoranda to Interpol, asking them to arrest Ghoneim, who resides in Qatar and Turkey.
Ghoneim is also on the list of Qatar-linked terrorists by Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Bahrain, the countries which are boycotting Qatar.
