The Tunisian opposition says the charges are fabricated, as police enforce a five-year prison sentence.
The court last week confirmed prison sentences of four to 45 years for opposition politicians, business figures and lawyers accused of plotting to overthrow President Kais Saied, who has prosecuted opposition figures for years.
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“If you are watching this video, I have been arrested,” Hammami, who served as human rights minister in 2020, said in a video posted by his family on his Facebook page on Tuesday.
He said, “I have spent many years fighting for democracy, freedom, rights. I will turn my cell into a new front of struggle.” He said he planned to go on a hunger strike.
His arrest follows that of fellow opposition leader Chaima Issa, who was detained last week at a protest in Tunis over the implementation of a 20-year prison sentence in the same case.
The sweeping prosecution has targeted about 40 people, including former official and former intelligence chief Kamel Guizani.
Opposition members say the charges against him – which include attempts to destabilize the country and topple the government – are fabricated and designed to quash dissent through the judiciary, saying the measures are a symbol of deepening authoritarianism in the country.
Police are widely expected to arrest Najib Chebbi, who heads the National Salvation Front, the main coalition challenging Saeed and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Twenty of those charged fled abroad and were sentenced in absentia, in what analysts have described as one of the largest political trials in Tunisia’s recent history.
Saeed insists that he does not interfere in the judiciary, but when the case begins in 2023, he said judges who acquit the accused will be considered collaborators.
Rights groups have condemned the conviction. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called for the immediate cancellation of the sentences, saying they were politically motivated.
Responding to the decision of the Tunis Court of Appeal to uphold the conviction on 28 November, Amnesty’s Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director, Sarah Hashash, said: “The decision of the Tunis Court of Appeal to upheld an unjust conviction in the so-called ‘conspiracy case’ is a terrible indictment of the Tunisian justice system… The Court of Appeal has willfully ignored the incidents of fair trial violations that have plagued it since day one. matter.”
Saied suspended parliament in July 2021, which opponents described as a “coup” and later ruled by decree. Many of those powers were included in the new constitution approved in a widely boycotted 2022 referendum, while media personalities, activists and lawyers critical of Saeed have been detained under a “fake news” law passed the same year.
Saeed shows no signs of slowing down his crackdown on the opposition, which has jailed prominent politicians from across the political spectrum.
They include Jawaharlal Nehru, co-founder of the country’s main opposition coalition; Issam Chebbi, leader of the centrist Al Joumhouri party; Ennahda party leader and former speaker of parliament Rached Ghannouchi; Former Prime Minister Ali Larayedh; and Free Constitutional Party chief Abeer Mousasi.
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