Tunisian police have arrested top opposition figure Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, his family says, as a crackdown on critics of President Kais Saied widens in the North African country, once a beacon of fledgling democracy in the years after the Arab Spring.

Chebbi was arrested at his home on Thursday, days after he was sentenced to 12 years for plotting against the state in a trial denounced by human rights groups as politically motivated and a “sham”.

The 81-year-old’s daughter said in a Facebook post that police had taken him from their home.

His lawyer, Amine Bouker, also confirmed the arrest to the AFP news agency, saying that Tunisia’s “political scene has become frightening”.

Chebbi – the cofounder of the National Salvation Front (FSN), the country’s main opposition coalition – is among

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