A Tunisian court ordered the formal detention of lawmaker Ahmed Saidani on Friday for criticizing President Kais Saied.
The arrest follows Saidani’s social media comments regarding the president’s response to recent, devastating floods across the North African nation.
Saidani referred to the president as the “supreme commander of sanitation,” mocking official visits to areas hit by record rainfall.
Authorities took the lawmaker into custody Wednesday on charges of using public telecommunications networks to intentionally harm others.
Defense lawyer Houssem Eddine Ben Attia stated his client faces two years in prison, with a trial set for February.
The prosecution comes after Tunisian storms killed at least five people during the heaviest rainfall recorded in seventy years.
While Saidani previously supported Saied’s 2021 power grab, he has recently joined the ranks of the president’s vocal critics.
International NGOs continue to warn of a sharp regression in civil liberties since Saied dismantled the country’s previous democratic framework.
Dozens of political opponents currently remain behind bars as the government increasingly utilizes “false news” laws to stifle dissent.
The Tunisian parliament called for the respect of constitutional guarantees, though Saied heavily restricted legislative immunity in 2022.
This legal action highlights the tightening grip on speech within a nation once considered the “Arab Spring’s” sole success story.
The detention serves as a stark reminder of the volatile political climate currently gripping the heart of the Mediterranean.