Tunisian police lock doors of Supreme Judicial Council offices

Tunisian police have locked the doors of the Supreme Judicial Council, which President Kais Saied dissolved on Sunday, and have stopped staff from entering, the head of the council told Reuters on Monday.

Saied’s announcement has raised fears for the rule of law in Tunisia after his seizure of almost total power last summer in a move his critics call a coup, with judges associations accusing him of an illegal act that undermines judicial independence.

Tunisia's association of judges said on Sunday that President Kais Saied's decision to dissolve the North African country's supreme judicial council was a dangerous and unprecedented retreat from constitutional gains it had made.

Saied's overnight decision is the latest step in a consolidation of power after he dismissed parliament and sacked the prime minister in July, promising to remake Tunisia's democratic constitution, which his critics have termed reminscent of a coup.