Imprisoned federal lawmaker embarks on hunger strike

A federal lawmaker serving a prison term has embarked on a hunger strike to protest the unjust judgement that landed him in gaol.

It was gathered that a Member of Parliament in Tunisia was arrested in July for criticising the army and President Kais Saied and was subsequently jailed. His lawyer, Mokhtar Jemaai, raised alarm on Wednesday that the jailed lawmaker has embarked on a hunger strike.

The lawmaker identified as Yassine Ayari, 40 years of age, was a former blogger, and is currently serving two months imprisonment after being found guilty in late 2018 for comments he posted about the country’s army on Facebook.

It was disclosed that the lawmaker was arrested five days after Saied sacked the prime minister and suspended parliament.

Ayari was said to have criticized Saied over the action on social media, accusing him of a “military coup”.

Saied was said to have further embarked on a crackdown on corruption against hundreds of businessmen over embezzlement.

Ayari, an independent MP, had enjoyed parliamentary immunity since his offensive comments. The government waited till he no longer had immunity to pick him up and throw him into jail. He unfortunately lost his parliamentary immunity which kept him out of jail as a result of the president’s decision.

Ayari has been an outspoken critic of authorities in Tunisia.

Ayari, according to his lawyer, Mokhtar Jemaai, embarked on a hunger strike on Tuesday to protest “civilians being subjected to military justice” in the country.