El-Heni is a well-known media figure in Tunisia and has been vocal about his opposition to President Kais Saied.
Ednews informs via AlJazeera that prominent Tunisian journalist Zied el-Heni has been arrested by an internal squad in plain clothes who stormed his home in a suburb of the capital Tunis, according to local media, amid an ongoing crackdown on critics of President Kais Saied.
El-Heni, the host of a daily programme at Radio IFM, was detained late Tuesday night after a judge ordered that he be held in custody ahead of his trial on a charge of insulting Tunisia’s president.
The journalist had posted on his Facebook page earlier that day that he had been summoned to appear before the Fifth Central Division for Combating Information and Communication Technology Crimes. His Facebook page has since been deactivated, lawyer Islam Hamza confirmed to news outlet Arabi21.
The National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists, an influential journalist union of which el-Heni was a cofounder, stated that he had been taken to the el-Aouina area of Tunis to be interrogated before the crime squad, and was denied his right to have a lawyer present.
“El-Heni was interrogated in the absence of lawyers. What happened is a farce that enhances the dictatorial approach,” El-Heni’s lawyer, Dalila ben Mbarek, told the Reuters news agency.
