Nabil Karoui

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Nabil Karoui

Nabil Karoui ( Arabic نبيل القروي, DMG Nabīl al-Qarawī ; * August 1, 1963 in Bizerte ) is a Tunisian entrepreneur and politician . As one of the key figures in the Tunisian media landscape, he is CEO of Karoui & Karoui World and owner of the Tunisian television channel Nessma TV . Karoui ran for the Tunisian presidential election in 2019 , qualified for the runoff election and came in second with around 27 percent of the vote.

Life

Karoui studied at the University of Aix-Marseille and then started working for several multinational companies. After working for Colgate-Palmolive in sales in France, he joined the sales and marketing team at the German company Henkel . There he was approached by a recruiter to work for the North African division of Canal + , where he worked for two years. In 1996 he founded the media company KNRG with his brother Ghazi and in 2002 the PR company Karoui & Karoui World, which later became one of the largest media companies in North Africa. In parallel to his international public relations work, Karoui expanded the domestic business and founded subsidiaries for audiovisual production, digital media, advertising and his own record label. In 2009 he became head of the television company Nessma TV. In 2011, the station's building was attacked by Islamists after it broadcast the film Persepolis .

At the beginning of the revolution in Tunisia in 2010/2011 , Nessma reported extensively on the protests against the long-time dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and gained public attention and influence. After the successful revolution, Karoui changed the station's programming from entertainment to news and became one of the country's leading sources of information. When the Islamist Ennahda won the elections for the Tunisian Constituent Assembly in 2011 , he helped found the secular Nidaa Tounes party in 2012 . In less than two years, Nidaa Tounes became one of the largest political parties in the country and won the 2014 parliamentary elections in Tunisia . The communications company Karoui & Karoui was instrumental in running the election campaign for Nidaa Tounes. Disagreements with the party leader and Tunisian President Caid Essebsi led Karoui to leave the party in April 2017.

In June 2019 Karoui announced his candidacy for the Tunisian presidential elections in 2019 and founded a new party called Qalb Tunis (Heart of Tunisia). On July 8, 2019, Karoui and his brother Ghazi were charged with money laundering and embezzlement. These were allegations that had already been made in 2016 by a non-governmental organization . Their fortunes were frozen as a result and both were banned from leaving the country. Karoui was arrested on August 23, following an arrest warrant from the Tunis Court of Appeals . Despite his arrest, he was allowed to run in the presidential election as he has not yet been convicted.

With 15.6% of the vote, he was second in the first round of voting, behind Kais Saied , which he qualified for the second round. Even after the successful ballot, Karoui was initially not released from custody. He was released on October 9th.

He lost the runoff election with around 27% of the vote against Saied.

Controversy

Opponents have criticized Karoui's influence in the Tunisian media landscape and the intentions of his charitable activities. Various media have compared him to the former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi .

In 2016 the NGO I-Watch Karoui accused of money laundering and embezzlement of funds with the help of a mailbox company . A 2017 recording revealed how Karoui attacked the NGO because of this, calling them “traitors” and “foreign agents” and calling on its staff to slander them with false reports.

Karoui's ties to the Algerian military and the Libyan Islamist Abd al-Hakim Balhaj were also criticized.

Private

Karoui had two children, a son and a daughter. His son Khalil was killed in a car accident near Gammarth near Tunis on August 21, 2016 at the age of 21.

Web links

Commons : Nabil Karoui  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nabil Karoui - Tunisialive. March 4, 2016, accessed September 23, 2019 .
  2. ^ "C'est bien un mouvement sans précédent que nous vivons là pour la Tunisie" . January 5, 2011 ( lemonde.fr [accessed September 23, 2019]).
  3. ↑ Les chaînes tunisienne se mettent à la télévérité. Retrieved September 23, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Benoît Delmas: Tunisie: Nabil Karoui, un nabab qui dérange. June 8, 2019, accessed on September 23, 2019 (French).
  5. ↑ Christoph Sydow: Presidential election: Tunisia's Berlusconi wants to go from jail to power . In: Spiegel Online . September 15, 2019 ( spiegel.de [accessed September 23, 2019]).
  6. ^ Presidential candidate in Tunisia: media mogul Karoui remains in custody . In: Spiegel Online . September 19, 2019 ( spiegel.de [accessed September 23, 2019]).
  7. ↑ Tunisian presidential candidate: Nabil Karoui is released from custody . In: Spiegel Online . October 9, 2019 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 10, 2019]).
  8. ^ Election in Tunisia - Karoui has a good chance of becoming president. Retrieved on September 23, 2019 (German).
  9. ^ Tunisie: le groupe Nessma mis en cause par une ONG anticorruption. In: JeuneAfrique.com. July 13, 2016, accessed on September 23, 2019 (fr-fr).
  10. ^ Tunisie: un enregistrement de Nabil Karoui menaçant l'ONG I Watch de defamation fait polémique. In: JeuneAfrique.com. April 19, 2017, accessed on September 23, 2019 (Fri-FR).
  11. ^ En Tunisie, le malaise du président Essebsi ajoute à la confusion pré-électorale. June 30, 2019, accessed on September 23, 2019 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Karoui, Nabil
ALTERNATIVE NAMES نبيل القروي (Arabic)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Tunisian politician and media entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH August 1, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Bizerte