Human Rights Watch criticized Friday the wave of arrests that Tunisia has been recently witnessing.
“The message in these arrests is that if you dare to speak out, the president can have you arrested and publicly denounce you,” it said.
Amnesty International stated earlier that President Kais Saied “should call off this politically motivated witch hunt.”
Tunisian police arrested in the past two days several figures who oppose Saied's policies, including the leader of the Republican Party Issam Chebbi and member of the National Salvation Front Chaima Issa over charges of conspiracy against the state’s security.
Others were arrested earlier including Abdelhamid Jelassi, a leader of the Islamist-inspired movement Ennahdha, and politicians Zahr al-Akrami and Noureddine al-Buhairi as well as judges such as Bashir Al-Akrami and businessman Kamel Eltaie.
Moreover, businessman Khayam Turki, politician Izz Al-Din Al-Hazqi, and prominent opposition figure Gohar Ben Mubarak were detained in the unprecedented arrest wave in the country.
Ben Mubarak had launched a political initiative called "Citizens Against the Coup" although he was a supporter of the Tunisian president during his election rally in 2019.
When the Tunisian President announced the freezing of the parliament's powers and later dissolved it, Ben Mubarak moved to the opposition.
Saied referred to those arrested as “terrorists” and accused them of “conspiracy against internal and external state security”.
The opposition described the arrests as “arbitrary”.
Ahmad Najib al-Shabi, head of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), denounced the arrests, stressing that the maltreatment of the political figures wouldn’t undermine their determination or halt their endeavors to unite the political movement.
Ennahdha party considered that the authority insists on “moving forward with the country toward the worst disasters”.
The party called in a statement for stopping the prosecution of the opposition figures including Rached Ghannouchi, the head of the party, over fake charges under cover of corruption and conspiracy against the state.
Ennahdha further urged the release of the detainees.
