TUNIS, April 14 (Reuters) – A Tunisian judge ordered the detention of former anti-corruption chief Chawki Tabib on Tuesday, in the latest incident in what critics describe as an escalating crackdown on high-profile figures in the country.
A judicial official said the case against Tabib, who is also a former head of the Tunisian Bar Association, concerned financial and administrative mismanagement during his tenure heading the anti-corruption body, which was dissolved by President Kais Saied in 2021.
Boubaker Ben Thabet, the current head of the Tunisian Bar Association, told Reuters that Tabib’s detention violated legal procedures and amounted to harassment.
Saied dissolved the elected parliament in 2021 and began ruling by decree, a move the opposition called a coup.
In 2022, he also dissolved the Supreme Judicial Council and sacked dozens of judges. He said the steps were legal and aimed at fighting corruption.
Tabib said on Sunday, before his detention, that the new case was part of a campaign targeting him. He had previously been placed under a travel ban.
His detention came a day after courts sentenced other public figures in separate cases, including El Hiwar TV owner Sami Fehri to five years in prison on financial charges, and media commentator Sonia Dahmani to 18 months over media comments.
Last month, a Tunisian court handed down a two-year prison sentence to news website editor Ghassen Ben Khelifa, a move the journalists’ union described as part of a “systemic” attack on free speech.
The leaders of the main opposition parties in Tunisia have been jailed within the last three years, along with dozens of politicians, journalists, activists and businessmen on charges of conspiring against state security, money laundering and corruption.
The opposition says Saied is targeting the country’s elite to silence dissent and strengthen one-man rule. Saied says he is purging corruption and “traitors”, insisting no one is above accountability.
(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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