A prominent opponent of the increasingly autocratic President Saied has been arrested in Tunisia. Numerous other opposition members have already been arrested in the past few weeks and months.
In Tunisia, President Kais Saied’s prominent opponent, Abir Moussi, has been arrested and imprisoned. “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’s party organized protests
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. The party has organized protests against Saied in recent months.
Moussi accused Saied of ruling outside the law and said she was prepared 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.”
Arrests again and again oppositionists
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.
Saied justifies his actions by saying he wants to end a year-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.