The United States on Tuesday criticized Tunisia’s arrests of lawyers and civil society figures, saying its actions went against constitutionally guaranteed freedoms.
“We’re engaging directly with the Tunisian government at all levels in support of human rights, including freedom of expression,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.
“I will say that this kind of action is inconsistent with what we think are universal rights that are explicitly guaranteed in the Tunisian constitution,” he said.
Tunisian activists have decried a rollback of freedoms since President Kais Saied began ruling by decree in 2021 in a sweeping power grab in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.
Authorities on Saturday raided the offices of Tunisia’s bar association and arrested a lawyer who criticized the state on television — and two days later returned and took away another lawyer who had protested her colleague’s arrest.
The European Union has also criticized the crackdown. The bloc last year inked a major cooperation deal with the North African country aimed at curbing the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean.