A Tunisian judge has ordered the detention of prominent lawyer Ahmed Souab, a fierce critic of President Kais Saied, lawyers said, two days after his arrest for comments about the judiciary.
Souab’s arrest sparked widespread anger among political parties and civil society groups, which said the move was a dangerous escalation of a crackdown on dissent and marked a further entrenchment of the country’s authoritarian regime.
Activists took to the streets in protest this week, calling for his release, chanting slogans against Saied and demanding an end to the harassment, silencing, and imprisonment of critics.
Souab was on the legal defense team in the mass trial last week, in which dozens of defendants, including vocal critics of Saied, were handed jail terms of up to 66 years.
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