Tunisian Islamist leader Rached Ghannouchi detained by police

Three other Ennahda officials arrested on Tuesday

Rached Ghannouchi was reportedly arrested at his Tunis home. AP

The leader of Tunisian opposition party Ennahda, Rached Ghannouchi, was detained late on Monday, state news agency TAP reported.

On Tuesday, three more prominent Ennahda officials were arrested, a lawyer and officials told Reuters.

Mr Ghannouchi, an Islamist with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, was detained after a writ by the prosecutor at the anti-terrorism judicial division alleging he made inflammatory comments.

Mohamed Goumani, Belkacem Hassan and Mohammed Chnaiba were arrested hours later, lawyer Monia Bouali told Reuters. Officials in Ennahda confirmed the arrests.

Ennahda criticised Mr Ghannouchi's arrest, calling it a “dangerous development”.

The party said Mr Ghannouchi's lawyers were not allowed to meet them and described the move as a “kidnapping”.

Mr Ghannouchi is one of the most prominent critics of President Kais Saied, his party said.

Police raided the party headquarters and emptied the building to start a search that will take days, after showing a judicial warrant, party officials told Reuters.

Ennahda also said police had searched Mr Ghannouchi's home before taking him to an “unknown destination”.

An Interior Ministry official said Mr Ghannouchi was taken for questioning and his house searched on the orders of the public prosecutor investigating “inciting statements”.

A senior Ennahda party official told Reuters the arrest was an attempt to “hit Ennahda and opposition parties.”

“We have a fear that it will be a prelude to a freeze on the party,” said Riadh Chaibi.

Police have this year detained leading political figures who accuse Mr Saied of a coup for his moves to close the elected parliament in 2021 and move to rule by decree before rewriting the constitution.

The earlier arrests, which have led to charges of conspiring against state security, have drawn statements of concern from the US and rights groups.

Mr Ghannouchi was speaking at an opposition meeting on Saturday.

“Tunisia without Ennahda, without political Islam, without the left, or any other component, is a project for civil war,” he said.

Mr Ghannouchi, 81, who was in exile in the 1990s and returned during Tunisia's 2011 uprising that brought democracy, claimed those who “celebrated the coup are extremists and terrorists”.

He has faced repeated rounds of judicial questioning over the past year on charges relating to Ennahda's finances and to allegations it helped Islamists travel to Syria to fight, charges he and the party both deny.