Tunisian lawyers protest, launch strike after pundit arrested

Tunisian lawyers protested and launched a nationwide strike on Monday over the arrest of a lawyer and political commentator in a weekend police raid.

"The strike was observed 100 percent," Laroussi Zguir, head of the bar association's Tunis division, told journalists at the Tunis court of first instance.

Several rallied outside the court against the arrest of commentator and lawyer Sonia Dahmani, demanding her immediate release and chanting that the judiciary is working "under orders".

Masked police on Saturday raided the bar association headquarters in the capital Tunis, where Dahmani had sought refuge after she refused to appear in court over comments she had made on television.

During a show on the Carthage Plus TV channel last Tuesday, Dahmani had responded to another pundit's claim that sub-Saharan migrants were seeking to settle in Tunisia.

"What extraordinary country are we talking about?" she asked sarcastically.

A judicial report on Thursday said Dahmani's comments were in response to a speech by President Kais Saied in which he vowed Tunisia would not become a place for the resettlement of sub-Saharan migrants prevented from crossing to Europe.

She was arrested under Decree 54, which outlaws "spreading false news" online or in the media, and which journalists and opposition figures argue is being used to stifle dissent.

Signed by Saied in 2022, the decree mandates up to five years in prison for the use of communications networks to "produce, spread (or) disseminate... false news" or to "slander others, tarnish their reputation, financially or morally harm them".

Broadcaster Borhen Bssais and political commentator Mourad Zeghidi were also arrested Saturday under Decree 54 for making critical comments, lawyer Ghazi Mrabet told AFP.

Mrabet said the judiciary on Sunday placed both under a "48-hour detention warrant" and that they would have to appear before an examining magistrate.