Most of Tunisia's 1,400 lawyers went on strike yesterday to protest what they say was police brutality against lawyers in a court of justice, lawyers said. "An overwhelming majority of the lawyers walked out of the court in bunches in Tunis for the strike, except a small number of lawyers who are staunch government backers," lawyer Nejib Chebbi told Reuters. The North African country's bar association called for the one-day walkout to protest against what it called violence and mistreatment of lawyers by the police. "Only one lawyer out of about 600 did not follow the strike in Sfax," lawyer Abdelwahab Maatar told Reuters by telephone from the main Tunisian southern city, which lies 240 km from Tunis. Lawyers said about 200 police stormed Tunis' main court last week to forcibly remove some 50 lawyers defending a colleague arrested for criticizing the government over an invitation to host Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The country's leading opposition parties vowed to stop Sharon from becoming the first Israeli leader to visit Tunisia in 57 years for a UN-backed World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis in November.