Tunisia’s government has asked a military court to outlaw the radical ‘Islamist’ Hizb ut-Tahrir movement, which has been regularly accused of “undermining public order” since its legalization in 2012, an official said Wednesday.

“A request to ban was submitted recently. We are awaiting the decision of the military investigative judge,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

He said a total ban on the party was imminent.

The party last month successfully overturned a decision by a civil judge to ban it, and has denounced what it says is “police harassment” in Tunisia.

It released an apparently inflammatory statement saying that “the government… knows that its time has come and that heads and hands will be cut.”

The remarks prompted a stinging rebuke from President Beji Caid Essebsi, who told his national security council last week that the group’s “arrogance towards the state undermines its authority.”

Source: AFP