(RSF/IFEX) – On 31 January 2003, RSF called for the immediate release of jailed Internet journalist Zouhair Yahyaoui, who ended a two-week hunger strike on 30 January. The organisation also demanded the release of another journalist, Hamadi Jebali, who is continuing his hunger strike. Jebali, publisher of the weekly “Al Fajr”, organ of the An […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 31 January 2003, RSF called for the immediate release of jailed Internet journalist Zouhair Yahyaoui, who ended a two-week hunger strike on 30 January. The organisation also demanded the release of another journalist, Hamadi Jebali, who is continuing his hunger strike.
Jebali, publisher of the weekly “Al Fajr”, organ of the An Nahda Islamic movement, began a hunger strike on 13 January to protest his conditions of detention. Jebali is currently jailed in the northern town of Bizerte. He has spent nearly 12 years in prison and suffers from heart problems.
Despite the growing number of appeals in both Tunisia and abroad, the government has refused to release the two journalists. RSF deplores the fact that Tunisians had to resort to hunger strikes and risk their lives in an effort to have their rights respected.
Yahyaoui, founder of the website TUNeZINE (www.tunezine.com), began his hunger strike on 17 January, to protest against his poor conditions of detention. Plainclothes police officers arrested him in a Tunis cybercafé on 4 June 2002 and he has been jailed ever since. On 10 July, the Tunis Appeals Court sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment for “spreading false news”. During his interrogation, he was subjected to three “suspension” sessions, a means of torture by which a person is suspended by the arms with their feet barely touching the ground.
After visiting with him on 27 January, Yahyaoui’s family confirmed that his health had seriously deteriorated. He suffers from constant headaches and a tooth infection, but had not been given proper medicine, despite repeated requests. He shares a cell with about 100 other detainees at Borj el-Amri prison, located 30 kilometres from Tunis.
Yahyaoui wrote under the alias “Ettounsi”, which means “The Tunisian” in Arabic. He launched the TUNeZINE website in July 2001 in an effort to circulate information on democracy and freedom in Tunisia and publish opposition documents online. He was one of the first people to publish Judge Mokhtar Yahyaoui’s controversial letter to the president criticising the country’s judicial system.
Jebali has been jailed since 1991. The Tunis Military Court sentenced him to 16 years’ imprisonment in 1992. Jebali was found guilty of “aggression with intent to change the nature of the state” and “membership in an illegal organisation”. At the time of his sentencing, Jebali had just served a one-year prison term for publishing an article in which he criticised the country’s military tribunal system. His family said recently that their home in the southwestern town of Sousse was being watched and their visitors have been questioned by plainclothes police.
