Tunisia presidential candidate to remain in jail

TUNIS: Tunisian presidential candidate Nabil Karoui is to remain in prison after an appeal was turned down on Friday, just two days ahead of the poll, his party and lawyers said.

"The court of appeal has declared it does not have jurisdiction (over the case)... and therefore it has turned down the appeal against the arrest warrant for Nabil Karoui," his Qalb Tounes party said in a statement.

"It is a decision concerning the form -- the court has refused to engage in the merits of the case," said one of his lawyers, Kamel Ben Messoud. Nazih Souii, another of Karoui´s lawyers, said "he will not be able to vote on Sunday, even though he has the right to do so". He said that a new application for the mogul´s release would be submitted shortly.