Leader of one of Tunisia’s prominent opposition parties, the Parti Destourien Libre (PDL), Abir Moussi, was detained on Tuesday, according to her party’s attorney.
Moussi was apprehended outside the presidential palace in Carthage, where she had arrived to submit appeals against presidential decrees.
In a video posted on the PDL’s Facebook page, the opposition leader stated that the president’s office had declined to accept her appeal or provide an acknowledgment of receipt.
Naoufel Bouden, the PDL’s attorney, has stated that the reasons for Moussi’s arrest remain undisclosed.
“More details are expected this evening or tomorrow,” he said.
Party members denounced the arrest as a “kidnapping” in statements to the Tunisian media.
Moussi, a former Member of Parliament, stands as a staunch adversary of both President Kais Said and the Ennahdha Islamists.
She holds allegiance to the late President Zine El Abidine ben Ali, who was ousted in 2011 during the initial Arab Spring uprising.
Critics on the left accuse Moussi of attempting to reintroduce a new dictatorship in Tunisia.
President Saied’s administration has taken a firm stance against the opposition, resulting in the imprisonment of several prominent opposition figures since February, including Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of the Islamo-conservative Ennahdha party.
Critics of Saied’s presidency have condemned it as authoritarian, with international organisations earlier this year expressing concerns about the nation’s shift towards autocracy.