Tunisian presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel was rearrested shortly after his release from pretrial detention.
His lawyer, Abdessatar Messaoudi, confirmed on Friday that Zammel faces new allegations of forging ballot signatures.
Zammel, 43, had been temporarily released by a Manouba court on Thursday night after spending four days in police custody.
The court initially granted his release, but Zammel was re-arrested almost immediately on similar charges.
A businessman and former parliamentarian, Zammel is one of only two candidates approved by the electoral authority, ISIE, for the upcoming presidential election on October 6.
He previously led the Azimoun party before resigning to run as an independent.
The arrest occurred just hours before ISIE revealed the final list of candidates.
This list includes Zammel, President Kais Saied, and former parliamentarian Zouhair Maghzaoui, excluding three other hopefuls despite favorable court rulings.
The European Union criticized the arrest and candidate exclusions, describing them as a “continued limitation of the democratic space.”
Human Rights Watch echoed these concerns, condemning the actions as detrimental to Tunisia’s electoral process.