TUNIS, Tunisia: Tunisian police have arrested prominent opposition lawyer and longtime human rights defender Ayachi Hammami at his home outside the capital Tunis, once known as the birthplace of the Arab Spring.
His family said the police were acting on a five-year prison sentence issued against him last week in a prominent case regarding "conspiracy against state security".
Hammami is among at least 40 individuals, including politicians and business figures, who were sentenced to prison terms ranging from two to 45 years in the same case. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, among others, condemned the charges and called them part of a systematic effort by President Kais Saied to quash dissent in the country.
After his arrest, Hammami published a pre-recorded video on Facebook in which he announced that he would begin a hunger strike until he is set free.
"I will turn the cell that Kais Saied would lock me in into a space for struggle as well," he said. "We are all victims of the oppression of this authority. Let's unite to change these conditions… Unity is the only evident and natural path for the people when faced with tyranny."
His daughter, Fida Hammami, told The Associated Press that her father's prison sentence was issued by "a court that lost all its independence" during Saied's tenure. She said the verdict resulted from an unfair trial with baseless charges and many violations of due process and fair trial rights.
She said her father was joining dozens of others imprisoned because they exercised their human rights and opposed the authoritarian drift in Tunisia.
Hammami was among a broader group sentenced last week in verdicts issued by the Tunis Court of Appeal. Those decisions also led to the arrest of opposition figure and National Salvation Front leader Chaima Issa, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Issa was seized by officers and taken away in an unmarked civilian vehicle as she was going home after participating in an opposition protest on November 29. She went on a hunger strike soon after.
Saied and his government denied that the case is political. They said the prosecutions are needed to protect the country from what they call serious security threats and plots to create unrest.
