TUNIS, Tunisia — Tunisian police on Tuesday arrested prominent opposition lawyer and longtime human rights defender Ayachi Hammami at his home outside the capital, acting on a five-year prison sentence issued against him last week in a prominent “conspiracy against state security” case, his family said.

Hammami is among at least 40 individuals, including politicians and business figures, who were handed down sentences of between two and 45 years in prison in the same case. Rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International condemned the charges as politically driven and part of a broader systematic effort by President Kais Saied to quash dissent in the country once known as the birthplace of the Arab Spring.

After his arrest on Tuesday, Hammami announced in a pre-record

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