Tunisian authorities have arrested former Libyan prime minister Baghdadi al-Mahmudi in Tunisia's southern border areas, the country's state TV said Thursday, citing an interior ministry official.

"Al-Mahmudi, together with two others, were arrested on Wednesday evening in the southern border areas," the official was quoted as saying.

Early this month, a Tunisian court released Hamdi Khouildi Hamidi, a close aide of the deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi after he was charged of entering the country illegally.

Hamidi was arrested at the Tunis Carthage international airport while attempting to leave Tunisia.