Foreign election monitors concerned by detention of Tunisian candidate

The holding of Tunisian presidential candidate Nabil Karoui in pre-trial detention for weeks before Sunday's election has raised a concern about the vote despite his release on Wednesday, a foreign monitoring team in Tunisia said on Sunday.

"The detention of one of the presidential candidates and his inability to campaign on a level playing field gives us grounds for concern," Les Campbell, a joint leader of the National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute observer mission in Tunisia, said by phone.