A prominent Tunisian activist was arrested on Saturday as hundreds protested in the capital against the curtailing of freedoms, an AFP journalist and lawyers said.

The protest in Tunis came a day after a mass appeal trial saw some 40 public figures, mainly critics of President Kais Saied, handed hefty sentences over plotting against the state.

Poet and political figure Chaima Issa, who was handed a 20-year sentence during the trial on Friday, was arrested during the rally, lawyers and witnesses said.

"We were marching in the protest when a group of plainclothes officers grabbed her and pushed her inside a........

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