Kais Saied

Election officials announce Tunisian president and candidate for re-election Kais Saied as the winner of the presidential elections, in the capital Tunis, Tunisia, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Anis Mili)

Tunisia’s Kais Saied wins landslide reelection, entrenching his power in Arab Spring’s birthplace

Tunisia’s President Kais Saied has won reelection in a landslide victory after a campaign that saw opponents jailed alongside journalists, activists and attorneys.

Tunisian president and candidate for re-election Kais Saied joins his supporters after the announcement of the provisional results for the presidential elections, in the capital Tunis, Tunisia, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Anis Mili)

Tunisia’s President Saied wins second term after cracking down on the opposition

A Tunisian voter casts her ballot at a polling station during the presidential elections, in the capital Tunis, Tunisia, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Anis Mili)

Tunisia votes Sunday in its third presidential election since the Arab Spring

A Tunisian woman shouts slogans during a demonstration against Tunisia president Kais Saied, ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, in Tunis, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Anis Mili)

Tunisia passes law to strip courts of power over election authority appointed by president

Abdessatar Messaoudi, right, attorney of Tunisian presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel, seen on the poster on the wall, speaks during a press conference after Zammel was sentenced to prison on fraud charges that Messaoudi decried as politically motivated, in Tunis, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024 (AP Photo/Ons Abid)

A Tunisian presidential candidate sentenced to 20 months vows to campaign from prison

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Tunisian take part in a protest against President Kais Saied ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, on Avenue Habib Bourguiba in the capital Tunis.(AP Photo/Anis Mili)

The presidential campaign season in Tunisia is officially underway a day after protests

The presidential campaign season in Tunisia is officially underway a day after protesters took their anger to the streets of their capital.

Tunisian take part in a protest against President Kais Saied ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, on Avenue Habib Bourguiba in the capital Tunis. (AP Photo/Anis Mili)

Tunisian authorities escalate pre-election crackdown and arrest Islamists en masse

Dozens of members of Tunisia’s largest opposition party have been arrested this week ahead of the formal start this weekend of the campaign season for the country’s presidential election.

FILE - Tunisia's President Kais Saied casts his ballot during legislative elections in Tunis, Dec. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Slim Abid, File)

Tunisia’s electoral authority approves just 2 candidates to challenge Saied. 1 has been detained

Tunisia’s electoral authority has approved just two candidates to challenge President Kais Saied in upcoming elections in the struggling North African country.

FILE - Tunisia's President Kais Saied casts his ballot during legislative elections in Tunis, Dec. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Slim Abid, File)

Tunisia’s president reshuffles Cabinet ahead of October election

Tunisia’s President Kais Saied has sacked several members of his cabinet, replacing his defense and foreign ministers as campaigning kicks off for the upcoming presidential election.

FILE - Tunisia's President Kais Saied casts his ballot during legislative elections in Tunis, Dec. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Slim Abid, File)

Tunisia’s president replaces prime minister in the latest shakeup ahead of presidential election

Tunisia’s president has sacked the country’s prime minister and replaced him with another Cabinet member, the latest shakeup in the North African country ahead of the October presidential election.

FILE - Tunisia's President Kais Saied casts his ballot during legislative elections in Tunis, Dec. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Slim Abid, File)

Tunisian President Saied files paperwork to run in October’s election

Tunisian President Kais Saied has filed the necessary paperwork to run in the presidential election in October.

FILE - Tunisian President Kais Saied attends a signing ceremony with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Friday, May 31, 2024. A Tunisian court on Friday sentenced presidential candidate Lotfi Mraihi to eight months in prison and banned him from contesting election for life in the latest move to stifle opponents of President Kais Saied in the upcoming October election. (Tingshu Wang/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Tunisian President Kais Saied to seek reelection in October after tumultuous first term

Tunisian President Kais Saied is saying that he will run for a second term. The announcement has been long expected and was made while many of Saied’s potential opponents languish in prison on charges their attorneys have described as politicized.

FILE - Tunisian President Kais Saied attends a signing ceremony with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Friday, May 31, 2024. A Tunisian court on Friday sentenced presidential candidate Lotfi Mraihi to eight months in prison and banned him from contesting election for life in the latest move to stifle opponents of President Kais Saied in the upcoming October election. (Tingshu Wang/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Tunisian presidential candidate Lotfi Mraihi barred from contesting elections for life

A Tunisian court has sentenced a presidential candidate Lotfi Mraihi to eight months in prison and banned him from contesting elections for life, in the latest move to stifle opponents of President Kais Saied in the upcoming October election which critics call a sham.

Lawyer Saida Al-Akrami, wife of Noureddine El-Behiri, a leader of Ennahda party and former Minister of Justice, speaks during a press conference by the National Salvation Front opposition group, ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, in Tunis, Tunisia, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Anis Mili)

Tunisia’s opposition says politically motivated arrests and gag orders are chilling election efforts

Leading opposition parties in Tunisia say politically motivated arrests and gag orders are creating impossible conditions for holding democratic elections later this year.

FILE - Tunisia's President Kais Saied casts his ballot as he participates in the legislative elections in Tunis, Dec. 17, 2022. As elections approach in Tunisia, potential presidential candidates are facing arrests as authorities clamp down on those planning to participate. Since President Kais Saied took power in 2019, critics and opponents have been arrested, detained and convicted of political charges stemming from criticism of the government.(AP Photo/Slim Abid, File)

Arrests, summonses of potential presidential candidates in Tunisia continue as election day nears

Potential presidential candidates in Tunisia are facing arrest or being summoned to appear in court as authorities clamp down on those planning to participate.

FILE - Tunisian President Kais Saied attends a signing ceremony with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Friday, May 31, 2024. Tunisia presidency says the North African country will hold its next presidential elections on Oct. 6. Its increasingly authoritarian President Kais Saied has yet to announce if he will seek a second term after five tumultuous years of leading Tunisia, once seen as a model of democracy for the Arab world. (Tingshu Wang/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Tunisia sets elections for October. The increasingly authoritarian president hasn’t said he’ll run

Tunisia’s increasingly authoritarian leader has scheduled the next presidential election for October without saying whether he will seek a second term.

FILE - Tunisia's President Kais Saied speaks during a media conference at an EU Africa summit in Brussels, Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. Two Tunisian journalists are kept in pre-trial detention as authorities continued a wave of arrests targeting perceived critics of President Kais Saied's government. Borhen Bsaies and Mourad Zeghidi remain behind bars after being apprehended. They were accused of violating a cybercrime law against fake news. (Johanna Geron, Pool Photo via AP, File)

2 journalists in detention in Tunisia as authorities launch wave of arrests against critics

Two Tunisian journalists are kept in pre-trial detention as authorities continued a wave of arrests targeting perceived critics of President Kais Saied’s government.

FILE - Tunisian President Kais Saied receives participants during the opening ceremony of the 18th Francophone Summit, in Djerba, Tunisia, on Nov. 19, 2022. Hooded police raided Tunisia’s bar association headquarters and arrested a lawyer as authorities escalated a broad crackdown that has ensnared political dissidents, non-governmental organizations and Black migrants. Sonia Dahmani, a prominent critic of the government, was arrested Saturday after making sarcastic remarks about Tunisia on a local television program last week and charged with distributing false information and disrupting public order. (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi, File)

Tunisian lawyers call for strike over arrest of their colleague amid crackdown on dissent

Hooded police raided Tunisia’s bar association headquarters and arrested a lawyer as authorities escalated a broad government crackdown that’s ensnared political dissidents, non-governmental organizations and Black migrants.

FILE - Tunisia's President Kais Saied casts his ballot as he participates in the legislative elections in Tunis, Dec. 17, 2022. Tunisia’s main opposition coalition said Tuesday, April 30, 2024, it won’t take part in the upcoming presidential election unless Saied’s political opponents are freed and judicial independence is restored. Saied is widely expected to seek reelection, but it is unclear if anyone will challenge him. (AP Photo/Slim Abid, File)

Tunisian opposition wants political prisoners freed before taking part in presidential election

Tunisia’s main opposition coalition says it won’t take part in the upcoming presidential election unless political opponents are freed and judicial independence is restored.

Tunisian journalist accused of insulting a public official to face trial next month

A Tunisian journalist is being detained in the lead-up to his trial next month on charges that he insulted a public official.

FILE - Former Tunisian President and head of el-Harak party Moncef Marzouki speaks to The Associated Press in Tunis, on Aug.28, 2019. A court in Tunisia this week handed down former President Moncef Marzouki an eight-year prison sentence in abstentia in the latest reflection of the country's ongoing crackdown against opponents of President Kais Saied. (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi, File)

Tunisia’s ex-president Moncef Marzouki sentenced to 8 years in absentia

A court in Tunisia has sentenced former president Moncef Marzouki to eight years in prison in absentia as part of the country’s crackdown on opponents of President Kais Saied.

Tunisian opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi joins group of imprisoned hunger strikers

Tunisian opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi has begun a hunger strike in prison, joining other government critics striking to protest what they see as unjust incarceration.

FILE - President of the Islamist party Ennahda and candidate for the Parliamentary election Rached Ghannouchi votes in a polling station south of Tunis, Tunisia, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2019. Tunisia's leading opposition figure was sentenced Thursday Feb.1, 2024 to three years in prison for accepting external financing. Rached Ghannouchi, the 82-year-old leader of Ennahda, is among the critics of President Kais Saied to face prison sentences amid a broader crackdown on opponents. (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi, File)

Tunisian opposition party leader sentenced to 3 years as crackdown on president’s critics continues

The head of Tunisia’s largest opposition party has been sentenced to three years in prison. It’s the latest display of the North African country’s crackdown on critics of President Kais Saied.

FILE - A view of Tunisian Central Bank in Tunis, Wednesday Feb. 16, 2011. Cash-strapped Tunisia wants to borrow billions from its central bank to shore up budget deficits and bandage its ongoing economic crisis. In a meeting behind closed doors, the North African country's parliament on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024, mulled a request from the President Kais Saied's government to borrow funds after it previously overhauled laws designed to guarantee the bank's independence. (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi, File)

Tunisia wants to borrow billions from its central bank to address deficits. Experts call that risky

Cash-strapped Tunisia wants to take the unprecedented step of borrowing billions from its central bank to address budget deficits and bandage its economic crisis.

People commemorate the 13th anniversary of the Tunisian uprising in Tunis, Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi)

Tunisia commemorates anniversary of the 2011 revolution. Opposition decries democratic backsliding

Thirteen years after they toppled the country’s longtime dictator, Tunisians are protesting President Kais Saied for democratic backsliding.

FILE - Tunisian President Kais Saied gives a speech at the new government's swearing-in ceremony at the Carthage Palace outside the capital Tunis, on Feb. 27, 2020. Tunisians will head to the polls on Sunday for the country's first local elections since President Kais Saied wrote a new constitution that voters approved last year. (Fethi Belaid/Pool via AP, File)

Tunisians vote in local elections on Sunday to fill a new chamber as economy flatlines

Tunisians head to vote in local elections on Sunday to populate a new second legislative chamber focused on economic development.

Chaima Issa, a leading figure in the coalition of parties opposed to President Kais Saied, speaks outside of a military court in Tunis, Tunisia on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. Issa faces a lengthy prison term as one of the country's many activists now charged with undermining state security. (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi)

A military court convicts Tunisian opposition activist Chaima Issa of undermining security

The lawyer for a prominent opposition activist in Tunisia says a military court has convicted his client of undermining state security.

Chaima Issa, a leading figure in the coalition of parties opposed to President Kais Saied, speaks outside of a military court in Tunis, Tunisia on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. Issa faces a lengthy prison term as one of the country's many activists now charged with undermining state security. (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi)

Tunisia opposition figure Issa denounces military prosecution as creating fear about civil freedoms

A prominent opposition figure on trial in Tunisia on charges of undermining state security is warning that efforts to prosecute her are sowing fear about civil rights and liberties.

FILE - Leader of the Ennahdha party, Rached Ghannouchi, speaks to the media after he was freed by the Tunisia's anti-terrorism unit in Tunis, Tunisia, Tuesday, July 19, 2022. The leader of Tunisia's moderate Islamist party has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for supporting terrorism and inciting hatred in the North African country. The Court of Appeal in the capital, Tunis, pronounced the sentence against the Ennahdha leader Rached Ghannouchi late Monday. (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi, File)

Tunisia’s Islamist party leader is sentenced to 15 months in prison for supporting terrorism

The leader of Tunisia’s moderate Islamist party has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for supporting terrorism and inciting hatred in the North African country.

FILE - Islamist party leader and parliament speaker Rached Ghannouchi speaks during a meeting in Tunis, Tunisia, on Oct. 3, 2019. Family members of jailed lawyers and politicians, including Ghannouchi, in Tunisia want the International Criminal Court to investigate claims of political persecution and human rights violations as an increasing number of President Kais Saied's opponents are arrested and several in prison stage hunger strikes. Jailed dissidents' sons and daughters in The Hague, Netherlands, on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023, will announce plans to pursue action at the court. (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi, File)

Families of imprisoned Tunisian dissidents turn to the International Criminal Court seeking justice

Family members of imprisoned dissidents in Tunisia want the International Criminal Court to investigate claims of political persecution and human rights violations in their country.

FILE - Tunisia's President Kais Saied speaks during a media conference at an EU Africa summit in Brussels, Feb. 18, 2022. Saied on Monday Oct. 2, 2023 accused the European Union of not following through on agreements made earlier this year to help Tunisia patrol its border, curb smuggling and balance its federal budget. (Johanna Geron, Pool Photo via AP, File)

Tunisia rejects European funds and says they fall short of a deal for migration and financial aid

Tunisia has announced it would reject an installment of funds sent by Europe to help the debt-ridden country patrol the Mediterranean Sea as migrant boat crossings spike to levels not seen in several years.

FILE - Tunisian President Kais Saied gives a speech at the new government's swearing-in ceremony at the Carthage Palace outside the capital Tunis, on Feb. 27, 2020. Tunisian officials detained a former prime minister for questioning before freeing him hours later, but jailed two top officials of the moderate Islamist Ennahdha party who’s leader Rached Ghannouchi has been in prison since mid-April, the official TAP news agency said Wednesday. (Fethi Belaid/Pool via AP, File)

Tunisian president’s remarks on Storm Daniel have been denounced as antisemitic and prompt an uproar

Tunisian President Kais Saied’s remarks that have been denounced as antisemitic have prompted an uproar on social media across the world.

FILE - Leader of the Ennahdha party, Rached Ghannouchi, speaks to the media after he was freed by the Tunisia's anti-terrorism unit in Tunis, Tunisia, Tuesday, July 19, 2022. Tunisian officials detained a former prime minister for questioning before freeing him hours later, but jailed two top officials of the moderate Islamist Ennahdha party who’s leader Rached Ghannouchi has been in prison since mid-April, the official TAP news agency said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi, File)

2 top officials of Tunisia’s moderate Islamist party arrested while its leader languishes in jail

Tunisian officials have detained a former prime minister for questioning then freed him hours later.

FILE - Tunisian Prime Minister Najla Bouden speaks during a joint press conference with Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly in Tunis, Friday, May 13, 2022. Tunisia's president has sacked the country's prime minister, who was the first woman to hold that job in an Arab League nation. A brief statement from the presidential office late Tuesday night did not give reasons for the dismissal of Najla Bouden Ramadhane. (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi, File)

Tunisia’s president sacks prime minister, the first woman to hold that job in an Arab League nation

Tunisia’s president has sacked the country’s prime minister, who was the first woman to hold that job in an Arab League nation.

In this handout photo distributed by Mbengue Nyimbilo Crepin, he is pictured with his daughter and wife, who he believes died of dehydration in a desert area near the border between Libyan and Tunisia. Nyimbilo had collapsed on the treacherous desert journey and encouraged his wife and daughter to keep going. He survived but says Matyla Dosso and six-year-old Marie likely did not. (Mbengue Nyimbilo Crepin via AP)

A family’s deadly tale shows chaos at the Tunisian border where Black migrants face discrimination

A Cameroonian man who survived the desert crossing between Tunisia and Libya says his wife and daughter died and are the migrants that appear in a graphic photo widely shared on social media.