Tunisian police raid the offices of attorneys and detain one of the attorneys

Witnesses reported that on Monday, Tunisian police, who had earlier this weekend detained two journalists and another lawyer who was critical of the president, broke into the bar association’s headquarters for the second time in two days and took custody of a lawyer.

On the media website TUNMEDIA, a live broadcast featured footage of shattered glass doors and overturned chairs, all as other lawyers yelled in the background and the police arrested Mahdi Zagrouba, a lawyer. Prominent attorney Zagrouba is well-known for opposing President Kais Saied.

Sonia Dahmani, a lawyer well-known for her scathing criticism of Saied, was taken into custody by police when they invaded the Tunisian Order of Lawyers headquarters on Saturday.

Last week, during a televised program, Dahmani claimed that life was not nice in Tunisia. She was responding to a lecture given by Saied, in which he claimed that thousands of undocumented migrants from Sub-Saharan nations were being forced to remain in Tunisia as part of a plot.

The bar association announced a statewide strike after certain opposition parties called the weekend’s siege of the lawyers’ facility “a shock and major escalation.”

Earlier on Monday, dozens of attorneys, among them Zagrouba, gathered in front of the courtroom and began yelling, “What a shame, the lawyers and the judiciary are under siege.”

“The judicial decision against Zagrouba was due to his physical and verbal assault on two policemen today near the courtroom,” the Interior Ministry stated in a statement.

The public prosecutor of Tunisia continued the imprisonment of two journalists on Monday, Mourad Zghidi and Borhen Bsaiss. The two had been arrested on Saturday for remarks they made on radio and posts on social media in an unrelated incident.

Lawyer Kalthoum Kanou was present at the incident and described the situation as “horrible.” “Police entered in a showy manner and arrested Zagrouba and dragged him to the ground before some of them returned to smash the door glass,” Kanou claimed.

After free elections in 2019, Saied assumed office. However, two years later, he shut down the elected parliament and began governing by decree, seizing more authority.

In a move dubbed a coup by the opposition, he also took control of the court.