TUNIS (Reuters) - Anti-terror police in Tunisia decided to detain the former prime minister and leader of the Islamist opposition Ennahda party, Ali Larayedh, for a day, lawyers said, hours after questioning him on suspicion of sending jihadists to Syria.

In the same case, the police postponed the investigation with Ennahda President and dissolved Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi until midday on Tuesday after waiting for about 14 hours on Monday inside the Bouchoucha barracks.

Lawyer Mokhtar Al-Jamaa told Reuters that Al-Arayedh will appear before a judge at the Anti-Terrorism Pole on Wednesday.

"We are shocked," said Samir Dilo, another lawyer on the defense team. "The file is originally empty and without evidence."

Ghannouchi, 81, accuses President Kais Saied of carrying out an anti-democratic coup since seizing most of the authorities last summer and moving to rule by decree, powers that were largely formalized with a new constitution approved in a referendum in July. .

Last month, the authorities arrested a number of former security officials and two members of the Ennahda movement on charges related to Tunisians traveling for jihad. Mohamed Farikha, a former Ennahda leader and owner of a private airline, was imprisoned in what became known in Tunisia as the case of "the deportation of jihadists to Syria."

In recent years, security and official sources estimated that about 6000 Tunisians went to Syria and Iraq in the past decade to join jihadist groups, including the Islamic State.

Secular parties in Tunisia have accused Ennahda of being lenient with Islamist militants during its post-revolution rule and urging young men in mosques and private meetings to wage jihad in Syria, something the party has consistently denied. ‭‭‭ ‬‬‬