TUNISIAN police have arrested prominent opposition figure Chaima Issa at a protest in the capital Tunis on Saturday, lawyers said.
The protest came after an appeals court on Friday handed jail terms of up to 45 years to opposition leaders, businessmen and lawyers on charges of conspiracy to overthrow President Kais Saied. Issa was handed a 20-year sentence during the trial.
“They will arrest me shortly,” Issa had told the Reuters news agency moments before her arrest.
“I say to the Tunisians, continue to protest and reject tyranny. We are sacrificing our freedom for you”.
She described the charges as unjust and politically motivated.
Police are also widely expected to arrest Najib Chebbi, the head of the opposition National Salvation Front, the main opposition coalition challenging Saied.
He received a 12-year prison sentence, and opposition figure Ayachi Hammami received a five-year sentence.
Human Rights Watch on Friday described the trial as a “travesty of justice”, saying it was “political, unfair, and without the slightest evidence” against the defendants.
In a statement to the AFP news agency, the US-based rights group condemned the “shameless instrumentalisation of the judiciary to eliminate Saied’s opponents”.
Meanwhile, UK-based rights group Amnesty International said the ruling was “an appalling indictment of the Tunisian justice system”, condemning “a relentless campaign to erode rights and silence dissent” in Tunisia.
During a sweeping power grab in July 2021, Saied suspended parliament and expanded executive power so he could rule by decree. Since then, the president has jailed many of his critics.
Many of the powers that Saied had taken for himself were later enshrined in a new constitution, ratified in a widely boycotted 2022 referendum, while media figures and lawyers critical of Saied have been prosecuted and detained under a “fake news” law enacted that same year.
Saied says his actions are legal and aimed at ending years of chaos and rampant corruption.