TUNIS: Tunisian authorities on Sunday arrested a television journalist and an MP who appeared on his show for criticising the recent power grab by President Kais Saied, their lawyer told AFP. It is the latest detention of a legislator after the immunity of MPs was lifted under Saied's July 25 suspension of parliament. He also sacked the government and put himself in charge of the prosecution.

Last month Saied followed up with measures that allow the president effectively to rule by decree, in the only democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring uprisings of a decade ago.

The lawyer, Samir Ben Omar, identified the arrested lawmaker as Abdellatif al-Alaoui and named the Zitouna TV presenter as Amer Ayad, saying they were being held on charges of "plotting against state security".

In the Hassad 24 programme they both criticised the president's September 29 appointment of Najla Bouden as Tunisia's first female prime minister, with Ayad scoffing that she would function only as "servant of the sultan".

Ayad speculated that Saied had been unable to find a man to fill the prime minister's post. In his remarks the legislator Alaoui added that he had "the courage to say" the Saied's measures were "a coup d'etat".

Both were arrested on the request of a military court for "the expression of their own opinions during this broadcast," their lawyer said.

Alaoui is a member of ultraconservative Islamist-nationalist party Al-Karama, an ally of Islamist-inspired Ennahdha which had the largest number of seats in the parliament which Saied suspended.

The president made his power grab after months of political stalemate and during the Covid-19 pandemic which further aggravated the North African country's economic and social difficulties.