Zamal was arrested on Monday on suspicion of involvement in forging popular endorsements.
Zamal is one of only three candidates that the electoral commission has decided to allow to run in the elections scheduled for October 6, alongside President Kais Saied and politician Zouhair Maghzaoui.
“A group of the National Guard kidnapped him to an unknown location that we do not know,” his campaign member, Mahdi Abdel Jawad, told Reuters.
Lawyers Abdel Sattar Al-Masoudi and Dalila Ben Mbarek said that Zamal was “kidnapped” immediately after his release from Burj Al-Amri prison.
The Interior Ministry was not immediately available for comment.
Zamal categorically denied the accusations and said he was being subjected to “restrictions and intimidation” because he was a serious competitor to Saeed.
Criticism and tensions have escalated in Tunisia after the electoral commission on Monday rejected rulings by the administrative court to reinstate three prominent presidential candidates.
Dozens of prominent law professors and deans of Tunisian law schools warned in a statement on Thursday that the presidential election risks losing its legitimacy and credibility if the electoral commission does not reinstate the three candidates in the race in implementation of the administrative court’s decision.
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