Tunisian police on Thursday arrested top opposition figure Nejib Chebbi to enforce a 12-year jail term on a conviction for conspiracy, his family said, the latest sign of an escalating crackdown on political dissent by President Kais Saied.

Chebbi, 82, has been a prominent opposition figure since the 1970s, throughout the autocratic presidencies of Habib Bourguiba, the country's first leader, and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was toppled in the 2011 pro-democracy uprising. Last week an appeals court handed jail terms of up to 45 years to dozens of opposition leaders including Chebbi, business figures and lawyers on charges of conspiracy to overthrow Saied, underlining his increasingly authoritarian rule, critics said.

Police have also arrested Chaima Issa

to enforce a 20-year prison sent

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