Tunisia arrests journalist Mohamed Yousfi amid crackdown on critics

Tunisian police have arrested prominent journalist Mohamed Yousfi, a vocal critic of President Kais Saied’s rule, the head of the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists told Reuters.

According to local journalists, police said that Yousfi, the editor-in-chief of the investigative news website Al-Qatiba, was brought in on Friday for questioning. The focus of the investigation is unknown.

Tunisian authorities have not yet commented on the arrest, which is the latest in a string of prosecutions of media figures and activists in Tunisia this year.

Khaoula Boukrim, founder of the news website TUMEDIA, who fled to France last year, was sentenced in June to four years in absentia.

Prominent journalist Zied el-Heni was sentenced in May to one year in prison, while broadcaster Mourad Zeghidi and political commentator Borhen Bsaies were sentenced in January to three and a half years.

Rights groups have warned of a widening crackdown on independent voices in Tunisia under Saied, whose rule has dismantled democratic safeguards, enabling authorities to pursue journalists and critics more aggressively.

On Thursday, Tunisia’s Court of Cassation upheld a mass trial against 40 figures, including opposition leaders, lawyers and human rights defenders convicted of conspiring to overthrow Saied.

“The ruling confirms that the judiciary is not independent,” said Haifa Chebbi, a lawyer whose father, opposition leader Najib Chebbi, was among those sentenced to 12 years.

Tunisia’s Minister of Justice Leila Jaffel said the defendants sought to destabilise the country.