Tunisian MP Jailed For Eight Months Over Posts Mocking President

A Tunisian court has sentenced a lawmaker to eight months in prison over social media posts mocking President Kais Saied following recent deadly floods.

Ahmed Saidani was arrested earlier this month after he posted on social media about Saied’s visits to flood-hit areas, calling him the “supreme commander of sanitation and rainwater drainage”.

He was jailed on Thursday on charges of insulting others via communication networks, a judicial official said.

Saidani’s lawyer, Houssem Eddine Ben Attia, told AFP news agency that his client was being prosecuted under a telecommunications law against “harming others via social media”, an offence punishable by up to two years in prison.

Human rights groups have criticised what they describe as an escalation of Saied’s crackdown on dissent since he suspended Tunisia’s parliament in 2021 and began ruling by decree.

Saidani, once a supporter of Saied’s consolidation of power and the arrest of opposition figures, has recently turned into an outspoken critic of the president.

In his Facebook post, the lawmaker mocked the president for “taking up the hobby of taking photos with the poor and destitute” while visiting flooded areas in the capital, Tunis and other parts of the country.

At least five people died after unexpectedly heavy rainfall in Tunisia last month