{"id":23328,"date":"2026-02-05T05:47:50","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T03:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/tunisian-police-arrest-member-of-parliament-who-mocked-president\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:08","slug":"tunisian-police-arrest-member-of-parliament-who-mocked-president","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/tunisian-police-arrest-member-of-parliament-who-mocked-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Tunisian police arrest member of parliament who mocked President"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Tunisian police arrested lawmaker Ahmed Saidani this Wednesday, two of his colleagues said, in what appeared to be part of an escalating crackdown on critics of President Kais Saied.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Saidani has recently become known for his fierce criticism of Saied. On Tuesday, he mocked the president in a Facebook post, describing him as the \u201csupreme commander of sewage and rainwater drainage,\u201d blasting what he said was the absence of any achievements by Saied.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\">Saidani was elected as a lawmaker at the end of 2022 in a parliamentary election with very low voter turnout, following Saied&#8217;s dissolution of the previous parliament and dismissal of the government in 2021.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Saied has since ruled by decree, moves the opposition has described as a coup.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Most opposition leaders, some journalists and critics of Saied, have been imprisoned since he seized control of most powers in 2021.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Activists and human rights groups say Saied has cemented his one\u2011man rule and turned Tunisia into an &#8220;open\u2011air prison&#8221; in an effort to suppress his opponents. Saied denies being a dictator, saying he is enforcing the law and seeking to \u201ccleanse\u201d the country.<br \/>\nOnce a supporter of Saied\u2019s policies against political opponents, Saidani has become a vocal critic in recent months, accusing the president of seeking to monopolize all decision-making while avoiding responsibility, leaving others to bear the blame for problems.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Last week, Saidani also mocked the president for \u201ctaking up the hobby of taking photos with the poor and destitute,\u201d sarcastically adding that Saied not only has solutions for Tunisia but claims to have global approaches capable of saving humanity.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Under Tunisian law, lawmakers enjoy parliamentary immunity and cannot be arrested for carrying out their duties, although detention is allowed if they are caught committing a crime.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\u2014Reuters\u2014<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":16130,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-23328","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Saied has since ruled by decree, moves the opposition has described as a coup.","published_date":null,"news_description":"Saied has since ruled by decree, moves the opposition has described as a coup.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26327,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23328\/revisions\/26327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}