Ridha Belhaj | |
Office1: | Head of the Presidential Cabinet |
Office2: | Delegate-minister in the Tunisian Transitional Government |
Birth Date: | 1962 2, df=y |
Birth Place: | Tunis, Tunisia |
Party: | Nidaa Tounes, Tounes Awalan |
Profession: | lawyer |
Ridha Belhaj (Arabic: رضا بلحاج), (born 16 February 1962) is a Tunisian lawyer, senior official and politician.
Ridha Belhaj studied at Alaoui High School in Tunis and then at the Tunisian-Algerian Institute, where he obtained a law degree in 1986 and a diploma in customs and tax economics in 1988.[1]
He was first head of service in the general directorate of participations of the Ministry of Finance. From 2002, he practiced as a lawyer with the Court of cassation.[2]
Having served as the General-secretary and delegate-minister in Beji Caid Essebsi's Transitional Government from February 2011 to December 2011.
On 1 January 2015, the new president of Tunisia Essebsi appointed him the head of his presidential cabinet.[3] On 1 February 2016, Belhaj stepped back to be replaced by Caid Essebsi's cousin Selim Azzabi.[4]
After leaving the government, he joined Nidaa Toune.[5] Member, spokesperson and then vice-president of Nidaa Tounes,[6] he resigned from this party in February 2016 due to political perspective problems.[7] In 2017, he announced the creation of a new party called Tounes Awalan of which he is the chairman of the constitutive committee.[8]
Ridha Belhaj is married and has three children.
He is currently in prison.