According to the decree, signed by President Alpha Conde, the former army chief has been replaced by Colonel Fode Keita, who commanded a battalion in central Guinea. No reason was given for the shuffle.

Conde has been army chief since 2010. His advisor Salifou Camara told AFP he was being moved to the Guinean embassy in the United States.

In May he was questioned for several hours by a Guinean court over an attack on the president's home in July last year by soldiers in which a presidential guard was killed and several people injured.

He was accused of "negligence and lack of a quick reaction from his men" during the attack.

More than 60 people were arrested during the investigation into the attack which was branded an assassination attempt by goverment. Seventeen of the accused have been released and two have died in custody.

Ayoub Messaoudi has been charged with defamation and "denigrating a military institution," crimes which carry potential prison jails of two and three years respectively, Charfeddine El Kellil said, adding the verdict is due on Wednesday.

The accused himself only learnt that he was on trial on Thursday at Tunis airport, where he was presented with a ban on leaving the country.

Kellil was unable to give more details about the charges against his client that were filed by the army chief of staff, General Rachid Ammar, and Defence Minister Abdelkarim Zbidi.

Messaoudi had accused the two men in a television broadcast in July of "treason" for not having informed the president in advance of the extradition of former Libyan premier Baghdadi al-Mahmudi to Tripoli to face justice.

Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali ordered the transfer at the end of June, causing a political crisis within Tunisia's ruling coalition, led by Jebali's moderate Islamist Ennahda party.

Marzouki, who belongs to the centre-left Congress for the Republic, was furious with the decision, having always expressed doubts about the ability of the new Libyan regime to guarantee Moamer Kadhafi's last premier a fair trial.