Tunisia jails lawmaker for eight months for mocking president

By Tarek Amara

TUNIS, Feb 19 (Reuters) – A Tunisian court on Thursday sentenced lawmaker Ahmed Saidani to eight months in prison over social media posts mocking President Kais Saied, a ruling that opponents say signals an intensifying crackdown on critics.

Once a supporter of Saied’s policies against political opponents, Saidani has become a vocal critic, accusing the president of seeking to monopolise all decision-making while leaving others to bear the blame for problems.

The member of parliament was jailed on charges of insulting others through communication networks, a judicial official said.

Saidani was arrested this month after he mocked the president in a Facebook post, describing him as the “supreme commander of sewage and rainwater drainage”.

“This is a violation of the law and an attack on institutions. How can parliament hold the executive authority to account if it carries out an unlawful arrest over critical views”, Bilel Mechri, a colleague of Saidani, told Reuters.

Saidani was elected as a lawmaker at the end of 2022 in a parliamentary election with very low voter turnout, following Saied’s dissolution of the previous parliament and dismissal of the government in 2021.

Saied has since ruled by decree, moves the opposition has described as a coup.

Most opposition leaders, some journalists and critics of Saied have been imprisoned since he seized control of most powers.

Human rights groups say Saied has cemented his one‑man rule and turned Tunisia into an “open‑air prison” in an effort to suppress his opponents.

Saied says he is enforcing the law and seeking to “cleanse” the country.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara;Editing by Alison Williams)