TUNISIAN police on Tuesday arrested prominent opposition lawyer and human rights defender Ayachi Hammami at his home outside the capital, Tunis.

The arrest acts on a five-year prison sentence issued against him last week in a prominent “conspiracy against state security” case, his family said.

Mr 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 clampdown on dissent in the country.

After his arrest on Tuesday, Mr Hammami announced in a pre-recorded video published on social media that he would begin an open-ended hunger strike until his demands for freedom are met.

He said: “I will turn the cell that Kais Saied would lock me in into a space for struggle as well.

“We are all victims of the oppression of this authority, let’s unite to change these conditions.”

President Saied and his government rejected accusations that the proceedings are politically motivated, stating on multiple occasions that prosecutions are a necessary step to safeguard the state from what they describe as serious national security threats and alleged plots to destabilise the country.