Blast Hits Tunisian Minister's House, Wife Injured

A gas leak caused a blast at the home of Tunisia's interior minister, leaving him unhurt but causing slight burns to his wife, a security official announced on Monday.

Neither the ministry nor Interior Minister Taoufik Charfeddine commented on the reported news.

Charfeddine has emerged as one of Tunisia's most influential figures since President Kais Saied moved towards one-person rule last summer, dismissing parliament and saying he could rule by decree.

Last February, Saied dissolved Supreme Judicial Council due to its delay in issuing rulings in cases of corruption and terrorism.

“In this council, positions and appointments are sold according to loyalties. Their place is not the place where they sit now, but where the accused stand,” Saied said in a speech in the interior ministry.

On his part, Saied affirmed that “Tunisians have the right to demonstrate peacefully and commemorate their martyrs, stressing their right to know the truth and to have a judiciary overseen by judges who only apply the law.”