A suspicious envelope containing toxic substance has been found in the Tunisia’s president Kais Saied meant to poison him.
The Tunisian president’s office said on Wednesday that a suspicious envelope was received by the Carthage Palace, the country’s official news agency reported.
It is reported that the envelope which was opened by Saied’s chief staff did not contain any document but a suspicious powder.
Its alleged that the powder is ricin, an inexpensive substance which when inhaled can cause immediate death than when injected or ingested.
The official source from the office of the President noted that the envelope and the powder were sent to a lab for tests to determine the content of the material and its sender.
“Nobody was harmed and the letter did not find its way to the president,” an official source said. The President did not receive/open the envelope but it was opened by an employee.
No sooner had the Algerian president Abddelmadjid Tebboune received the traumatic news of Saied’s suspected poisoning than he rang him by telephone.
Abddelmadjid Tebboune who is hospitalised in Germany after he suffered coronavirus complications, did not reveal any information shared with his Tunisia counterpart.
The attempts comes at a time when there are high tensions and wrangles in the country over a new cabinet and recent unrest amid a coronavirus driven economic crisis that has seen hundreds of mainly young people arrested.
This is a second attempt to poison President Saied since he assumed power on October23, 2019 following the death of Beji Caid Essebsi which occurred on 25July,2019.
On Aug. 21, a Tunisian daily said the police received reports over attempts to poison the president by bread that comes to the presidential office. The Tunisian police, however, investigated the case and found it untrue.
