President Saied is tightening course
Prominent opposition figures arrested in Tunis
October 4, 2023, 11:28 a.m
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In Tunisia, President Saied is cracking down on the opposition: the police arrest 20 people over the course of the year. Protests in front of the presidential palace follow. A jailed opposition leader goes on hunger strike. Now another prominent opponent of the president is in custody.
Abir Moussi, a prominent opponent of President Kais Saied, has been arrested and imprisoned in Tunisia. “Moussi was detained for 48 hours on charges of processing personal data, obstructing the right to work and attack with the aim of causing chaos,” said her lawyer Aroussi Zgir. She was arrested on Tuesday at the entrance to the presidential palace.
Moussi’s assistant described her arrest outside the palace as a “kidnapping” in a video posted on Facebook. Moussi had previously said she had gone to the palace to lodge her objections to local elections scheduled for later this year. The authorities could not immediately be reached for comment.
Moussi leads the Free Constitution Party and is a supporter of the late President Zine El Abidine ben Ali, who was ousted by mass protests in 2011. Her party had organized protests against Saied in recent months. Moussi accuses Saied of ruling outside the law. She stressed that she was ready to make personal sacrifices to save Tunisia.
Police have arrested more than 20 leading opposition politicians this year on charges of conspiring against state security. Saied described those arrested as “terrorists, traitors and criminals.”
In recent years, the retired law professor has secured more and more power in the North African country with 12 million inhabitants. Saied dissolved parliament by decree in July 2021, which the opposition viewed as a coup. He also implemented a constitution that places all important powers in the hands of the president and severely limits the government’s ability to act. He justifies his actions by saying he wants to end a years-long crisis in Tunisia.
His opponents fear that he wants to convert North Africa’s last democratic state into an autocracy and undo the democratic gains of the 2011 Arab Spring revolution that started in Tunisia. On Friday, jailed opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi, another critic of Said, went on a three-day hunger strike. He was joined by five other prominent opposition figures.