Tunisian court orders pre-trial detention for Saied opponents

A former Tunisian parliamentarian who planned to run in the upcoming presidential election but then dropped out has been remanded in custody for allegedly illegally crossing the border into Algeria, a court told local media on Wednesday.

Safi Said, 70, a former journalist and vocal opponent of Tunisian President Kais Saied, was sentenced to four months in prison last June for forging ballot signatures in the 2014 presidential election.

On Tuesday, a court in Kasserine, western Tunisia, “ordered the detention of political activist Safi Said and one of his companions for illegally crossing the border of a neighboring country,” a court spokesman told local media.

Said, who is also an author, announced his candidacy for the presidential elections scheduled for October 6 earlier this year, but then withdrew from the race, calling the elections a “bad farce.”

He joins a number of political figures who were critical of Saied and were prosecuted and imprisoned.

On Tuesday, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch said that Tunisian authorities had “prosecuted, convicted or detained at least eight potential candidates for the election.”

The North African country “is preparing for a presidential election while dissent and free expression are increasingly suppressed and President Saied's power is not protected by decisive checks and balances,” it said.

The detained candidates include Issam Chebbi, leader of the centrist Al-Joumhouri party, and Ghazi Chaouchi, head of the social democratic Democratic Stream party. Both are being held on charges of “conspiracy against the state.”

Earlier this month, Abir Moussi, a leading opposition figure who has been in prison since October, was sentenced to two years in prison under a law against “fake news” just days after she reportedly filed her presidential candidacy through her lawyers.

Only two candidates – 59-year-old former MP Zouhair Maghzaoui and the leader of a small liberal party, Ayachi Zammel – were pre-selected to run against Saied, whom his critics accused of authoritarian behavior.

The High Independent Electoral Authority (ISIE) said it had rejected 14 presidential candidates on the grounds that they had “not gathered sufficient support”.

To be included on the ballot, candidates must submit a list of signatures from 10,000 registered voters.

Several potential candidates have been accused of forging these signatures.

Some candidates also said they were unofficially denied candidacy because the authorities refused to provide them with a copy of a clean criminal record, a required document in the application form.