Three Tunisian pundits arrested over critical remarks: lawyers

TUNIS: Tunisian authorities ordered on Sunday the arrest of two political commentators over critical comments, a lawyer told AFP, a day after security forces stormed the bar association and took a third pundit into custody.

Sonia Dahmani, also a lawyer, was arrested late on Saturday after criticising the state of Tunisia on television, her attorney Dalila Msaddek said in a Facebook post.

Msaddek said there was a “police attack” on the bar association headquarters in Tunis, with “lawyers assaulted and the abduction of colleague Sonia Dahmani to an unknown location”.

Also on Saturday, broadcaster Borhen Bssais and political commentator Mourad Zeghidi were arrested for making critical comments, lawyer Ghazi Mrabet told AFP.

Mrabet said the judiciary on Sunday placed both under a “48-hour detention warrant and (they) will have to appear before an examining magistrate”.

He said Zeghidi was being pursued “for a social media post in which he supported an arrested journalist”, Mohamed Boughalleb. He was sentenced to six months in prison for defaming a public official and over “statements made during television shows since February”.

Arrest warrants were issued for Bssais and Zeghidi for disseminating “false information... with the aim of defaming others or harming their reputation”, Tunis court spokesperson Mohamed Zitouna told AFP.

Mrabet said Bssais was detained under Decree 54, which punishes the production and dissemination of “false news”.