On the third day of a wave of arrests of opposition politicians and activists in Tunisia, police have detained the head of an independent radio station.
Officers stormed the home of Noureddine Boutar of Mosaque FM, which has criticised President Kais Saied, on Monday. Numerous public personalities, including an opposition politician, a renowned businessman, two judges, and a former diplomat, have been detained since Saturday. President Saied claims he wants to bring order to the North African country.
The country’s major opposition party Ennahda has termed the detentions as the “kidnapping of Saied’s opponents”. Many Tunisians who backed President Saied when he took office in 2019 have recently turned against him.
Mr Saied deposed the prime minister, stopped parliament, and forced through a constitution establishing his one-man reign in 2021. The new constitution superseded one established shortly after Tunisia’s fall of late dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali during the Arab Spring upheavals in 2011. It delegated full executive control and ultimate command of the army to the head of state.
Thousands of protestors marched in Tunis last month, demanding the resignation of Mr Saied’s government.