A few days before the run-off to the presidency in Tunisia, the candidate Nabil Karoui has been released from custody. The media entrepreneur was arrested in August on suspicion of tax evasion and money laundering.
In the first round of the presidential election on September 15 Karoui was out of prison with 15.6 percent of the votes in second place behind the law professor Kais Saied (18.4 percent) landed.
A runoff between the candidates is scheduled for Sunday. The entry of the two outsiders in the election was a bitter defeat for the established parties in Tunisia.
Karoui sees his detention as politically motivated and called for a postponement of the vote. The TV entrepreneur, who had made popular with the voters with gifts for the poor in Tunisia, is considered as Tunisia's Berlusconi because of the confusion of politics and media power. (Read more about Karoui's campaign strategy here.)
On 23 August, he had been detained only a few days before the election campaign on suspicion of money laundering and tax evasion.
