By Tarek Amara
TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisians took to the streets on Friday in a mass protest demanding democracy, freedoms, and an end to arbitrary detention of critics and opponents, escalating pressure on President Kais Saied’s government.
The government has come under widespread criticism for a crackdown on dissent following the arrest of prominent lawyer Ahmed Souab, and prison sentences against opposition leaders on conspiring charges last week.
Under the slogan “Free Tunisia, Free Ahmed Souab,” protesters marched from the headquarters of the Journalists’ union and reached Habib Bourguiba Avenue in the capital, where hundreds of riot police were deployed.
They chanted slogans such as, “It’s your turn, Saied, dictator,” and “The people want the fall of the regime,” a slogan chanted by protesters in 2011 when former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted by weeks of protests.
Protesters held up pictures of imprisoned journalists, politicians, and lawyers, including Souab, a vocal critic of Saied.
Souab’s arrest sparked widespread anger among political parties, civil society and rights groups, which said the move was a dangerous escalation of a crackdown on dissent and marked a further entrenchment of the country’s authoritarian government.
The opposition says Saied has had full control over the judiciary since he dissolved parliament in 2021 and began ruling by decree. He dissolved the independent Supreme Judicial Council and fired dozens of judges in 2022. They described the move as a coup.
France, Germany and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights criticised the lengthy sentences against opposition leaders and businessmen on conspiracy charges last week, saying the conditions for a fair trial were not met.
Forty people were prosecuted in the trial, which started in March. More than 20 have fled abroad since being charged.
Lawyers said the maximum sentence was 66 years for businessman Kamel Ltaif, while opposition politician Khyam Turki received a 48-year sentence.
Saied said in 2023 that the politicians were “traitors and terrorists” and that judges who would acquit them were their accomplices.
(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Editing by Alistair Bell)
