TUNIS (Reuters) – The top of a Tunisian political party who’s a outstanding opponent of President Kais Saied said he was stopped from leaving the country on Wednesday, fuelling concerns over the correct to dissent and democratic pluralism.
Fadel Abdel Kefi, the top of the Afek Tounes party, said police stopped him at Carthage international airport and prevented him travelling, but with none judicial warrant.
The move comes a day after police began investigating a domestic journalist over an article critical of the prime minister and within the run-up to legislative elections that Saied’s opponents have decried as undemocratic.
Saied seized broad powers last 12 months, shut down the elected parliament and held a referendum to enshrine near absolute presidential power buttressed by a weakened legislature in a latest structure.
An Interior Ministry official told Reuters a Tunis court had issued a judicial decision to forestall Abdel Kefi from travelling, adding that the ministry was not empowered to take such a step independently.
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Abdel Kefi told Reuters he had not been made aware of any judicial decision against him. “Is it reasonable for a choice to be issued without my knowledge?” he said, calling the move a “violation of a basic right”.
Rights groups have warned that Saied’s moves have put in danger Tunisia’s democracy and the rights and freedoms won after a 2011 revolution.
Nonetheless, there was no major campaign of arrests or crackdown on dissent, and Saied has denied having dictatorial ambitions.
Abdel Kafi has emerged in recent months as a outstanding critic of the president’s seizure of most powers, saying he acts like a king and has not improved governance or saved the faltering economy.
He has also called for many of Saied’s latest structure to be revoked and for a balance of power between different branches of presidency to be restored.
(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Copyright 2022 Thomson Reuters.
