In Tunisia, despite a ban on protests, hundreds of demonstrators today demanded the release of more than 20 prominent critics of authoritarian President Kais Saied. “Free the detainees,” chanted the demonstrators, mostly supporters of the opposition National Salvation Front (NSF). More than 500 people, some waving Tunisian flags, gathered on Habib Bourguiba avenue in central Tunis.
AP/Hassene Dridi
Several prominent critics of Saied were recently arrested in Tunisia, including members of the opposition alliance NSF and its most important member, the Islamist Ennahda party. In 2021, the president overthrew the government and parliament, citing emergency laws. As a result, Saied pushed for a constitutional amendment that gave him significantly more power.
Protesters denounced the president’s expansion of power as a “coup d’état” and opposed the capital’s ban on demonstrations. President Saied accused his jailed critics of “terrorism”, causing the recent food shortages and conspiring against the state. Human rights organization Amnesty International, however, called the arrests a “politically motivated witch hunt”.