Hundreds demonstrated in the Tunisian capital on Saturday, January 18, calling for the release of Abir Moussi, a critic of President Kais Saied who has been jailed for more than a year.
The demonstrators shouted "freedom for Abir" and "we are opponents, not traitors" at the gathering in central Tunis, Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists reported.
Moussi, 49, heads the Free Destourian Party, which critics accuse of seeking to restore the iron-fisted rule that Tunisians overthrew in the Arab Spring protests of 2011. Moussi, who had hoped to run in last year's presidential election, stands accused of charges including "seeking to change the form of the state."
She has been in custody since her arrest, in October 2023, outside of the presidential palace, where her party has said she was seeking to lodge appeals against Saied's decrees.
Saied was elected in 2019 but launched a sweeping power grab in 2021 and has since effectively ruled by decree. In October, he was re-elected in a landslide after his main opponents were jailed.
Moussi was sentenced to 16 months in prison in November on charges of spreading "false news" after she criticised the electoral authority.
A leading figure in her party, Thameur Saad, said, on Saturday, that her conviction "is not worthy of a country that calls itself democratic."