Tunisian prosecutors say no toxic substance in letter to president

No toxic or explosive substances were found in a suspicious envelope addressed to the Tunisian president earlier this week, prosecutors said on Friday.

On Thursday, the Tunisian presidency said it received an empty envelope addressed to President Kais Saied and that it had caused the employee who opened it to fall ill and lose her sight temporarily.

The presidency added that Saied had not been harmed and described the incident as a “miserable” poisoning attempt.

But the prosecution said Friday that technical examinations of the envelope found it had no trace of any “suspicious toxic, sedative, lethal or explosive substance,” the Tunisian state news agency TAP reported.

So far, there has been no comment from the presidency on the prosecutors’ findings.

Saied, a former law professor, took office in 2019 as Tunisia’s second democratically-elected president since a popular uprising in the North African country kicked off the Arab Spring revolts of 2010-11. (dpa/NAN)