Kais Saied: the ‘RoboCop’ president accused of launching Tunisia coup

Law professor was surprise 2019 election winner and now finds himself at centre of political crisis

Kais Saied, the Tunisian president who has plunged the country into a new political crisis, has always been something of a political blank slate.

A surprise winner of the 2019 elections, the rise to power of Saied, 63, a dry law professor with little political experience and no party to speak of, spoke to the disillusionment of Tunisians with their country following the 2011 revolution that sparked the Arab spring.