Daily Times

A Tunisian military court has placed a journalist in custody after he made comments about the army during a television broadcast, his lawyer told AFP on Sunday. The military prosecutor’s office opened an investigation after Salah Attia, who works for a local daily, made the remarks to Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera on Friday, his lawyer Samir Ben Amor said. Attia said Tunisian President Kais Saied had “officially asked the military to intervene against the Tunisian General Labour Union” — a powerful body known as the UGTT — and to surround its offices ahead of a general strike called for June 16. Attia, who opposes a power grab by Saied that began in July last year, said the army told the UGTT it had refused the president’s request. “It seems as if we’re in the final days of the regime of Ben Ali,” Attia said, referring to former Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali who was ousted in a 2011 uprising.