Riot police are being deployed in large quantities to separate Tunis groups.
Opponents of Tunisian President Kais Said have protested on the streets of the capital Tunis, accusing him of using justice and police to suppress critics, and his supporters are rebellious and underscoring the political disparities that are trolling the nation.
The second opposition protest of the week, the anti-saied demonstration, reflects growing concern among human rights groups that the Arab Spring birthplace is sliding towards dictatorship.
Protesters on the capital’s main highway chanted slogans such as “Said Go Away, you are a dictator” and “People want the regime to fall apart.”
On the same street, Khabib Bourgiva Avenue had Sayed supporters gathered in his defense and chanted “Not in foreign interference” and “People want to Sayed again.”
Riot police are being deployed in large quantities to separate groups. No collisions have been reported yet.
The demonstrations follow a month-long government crackdown on Saeed critics, including the detention of prominent lawyer Ahmed Soab, a fierce critic of the president.
On Thursday, anti-segregation protesters marched from the headquarters of the administrative court. There, Suabu was a judge before resigning and becoming a widely respected lawyer by all political parties.
They then joined other protesters in the square, home to the headquarters of the powerful UGTT Union, before heading to Khabib Bourgiva Avenue.
Souve’s arrest attracted criticism from France, Germany and the United Nations, following the sentence he was handed over to opposition leaders last week on conspiracy charges.
Said refused to criticize him, calling it blatant interference in Tunisian sovereignty.
Opponents have accused Said of undermining the democracy that won the 2011 revolution by seizing extra powers in 2021, when he moved to control by order before taking over power over the judiciary.
They described his move as a coup, but Said says it is legal and necessary to end the confusion and rampaging corruption.
Leaders of most political parties in Tunisia are in prisons.
The government says Tunisia has a democracy. Said says he is not a dictator, but insists that what he calls a corrupt elite must be accountable.
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