On Friday, a Tunisian judge ordered the release of two prominent political opponents of President Kais Saied after being arrested for nearly five months on suspicion of plotting against state security, their lawyer Monia Bouali told the Reuters news agency.
Chaima Issa and Lazahr Akremi were detained along with 20 other political leaders in a crackdown on the opposition. They were leading figures in protests against Kais Saied ‘s rule, who in 2021 dissolved the parliament and seized broad authorities.
Issa is a leader in the Salvation Front, the main opposition coalition to Saied which has organised protests against him over the past two years. Akremi, a lawyer who served as a minister after Tunisia’s 2011 revolution, has been a prominent critical voice against Saied.
Before the announcement of the verdict, dozens of prisoners’ families and supporters engaged in protests near the court in Tunis, holding up pictures of the detainees and calling for their freedom.
After her release from prison, Issa chanted, “Down with the coup. Down with Kais Saied”.
“The injustice against the rest of the prisoners must end … Imprisoning the dissidents will not solve Tunisia’s problems,” Issa told Reuters.
In a statement, The defence team for the two opponents said that the investigating judge decided to “release Chaima Issa and also responded to the defence committee’s request for the release of Lazhar Akremi”.
The Appeal Court judge refused to approve the team’s request for the release of other political opponents.
The main opposition parties have denounced their leaders’ arrests and rights groups called for the freedom of the detainees.
Saied has described them as “terrorists” and traitors who conspire against state security, maintaining that the judges who freed them are abetting their alleged crimes.
Saied ruled by decree from September 2021 to March 2023, a move described by the opposition as a coup against the sole democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring Uprisings.
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