Tunisian police arrest ex-prime minister Hamadi Jebali - family

Tunisian police on Thursday arrested former Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, who is also a former senior member of the Ennahda party, his family said.

Police in the city of Sousse seized Jebali's phone and his wife's phone and took him to an unknown location, a statement by his family posted on Facebook said.

The Interior Ministry declined to comment on Jebali's arrest. The ministry called a press conference for Friday, without giving any details.

Ennahda was the biggest party in Tunisia's parliament before President Kais Saied dissolved the assembly and seized executive powers last year, a move the party and other critics condemned as a coup. Saied said the move was temporary and was needed to save Tunisia from what he saw as a corrupt, self-serving elite.

"The president is personally responsible for Jebali's physical and psychological well-being," his family said in the Facebook post, and called on civil society and human rights organizations "to stand up against these repressive practices".

Jebali was prime minister in 2012 and resigned in 2013 following a political crisis.

Earlier this year, police arrested Noureddine Bhiri, the vice president of the Ennahda party for more than two months before releasing him without any charges being brought.

Saied's opponents say he is waging a campaign through the police and the judiciary to target his opponents, but he denies this and says he is not a dictator.