Tunisians step up protests against Saied's crackdown on opposition

By Tarek Amara

TUNIS, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Tunisians took to the streets on Saturday for a third straight week to protest against President Kais Saied's expanding crackdown on the opposition, critics and NGOs, urging the release of political prisoners.

Protests against Saied are growing as rights groups accuse him of using the judiciary and police to suppress opponents and to cement an autocratic one-man rule.

Saied denies having become a dictator or using the judiciary against opponents.

Last week an appeals court handed jail terms of up to 45 years to dozens of opposition leaders, businesspeople and lawyers on charges of conspiracy to overthrow Saied, in what critics said was a sign of increasingly authoritarian rule.

Protesters from across the political spectrum carried banners reading "opposition not a crime", "Free Tunisia", and held up pictures of dozens of detained leaders and activists.

The latest protest also follows the arrests of opposition figures Chaima Issa, Ayachi Hammami and Nejib Chebbi, in the same case.

Protesters marched through central Tunis, chanting "the people want the fall of the regime", a slogan that became the rallying cry of the 2011 revolution that sparked Arab spring uprisings.

"I have never seen a worse situation in Tunisia than today... repression, authoritarianism, injustice, Anyone who criticizes, including opponents, journalists or activists, ends up in prison," said Wahida Khaldi, the wife of jailed politician Ayachi Hammami.

The powerful UGTT union on Friday called a nationwide strike on January 21 to protest at restrictions on rights and freedoms and to demand wage negotiations.

Saied shut down parliament and began ruling by decree in 2021 in what he called a move to root out rampant corruption and mismanagement, but which the opposition called a coup.

Most prominent opposition leaders are in prison.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Editing by Alex Richardson)