Tunisia police close Supreme Judicial Council offices

TUNIS - 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.

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

The association, which is the most representative body for judges in Tunisia, said in a statement that the move represented an effort to dominate the judiciary under a system in which all power is concentrated in the hands of the President.