TUNIS: A Tunisian lawmaker sentenced in February to eight months in prison for criticizing President Kais Saied was released on Tuesday under a presidential pardon, his lawyer told AFP.
Ahmed Saidani was among more than a thousand people the president pardoned on the occasion of the Eid Al-Adha holiday, his lawyer Houssem Eddine Ben Attia said.
Eid will be celebrated on Wednesday in Tunisia.
Saidani was arrested in February and sentenced to eight months in prison for “harming others via social media,” his lawyer said.
Saidani had posted on social media about Saied’s visits to flood-affected areas following record rains in January, describing him as the “supreme commander of sanitation and stormwater drainage.”
Rights groups have warned of a rollback on freedoms in Tunisia since Saied staged a sweeping power grab in 2021.
Saidani had backed Saied’s power grab and the detention of several opposition figures, but has recently become vocally critical of the president.
Dozens of Saied’s critics are being prosecuted or in prison, including under a law criminalizing “false news.”
