(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has vehemently protested the ongoing judicial onslaught against journalist Abdallah Zouari, who has been sentenced on appeal to a total prison sentence of 13 months. “One wonders what the Tunisian authorities will come up with next to try to break this journalist, who has already served 11 years in prison,” said RSF […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has vehemently protested the ongoing judicial onslaught against journalist Abdallah Zouari, who has been sentenced on appeal to a total prison sentence of 13 months.
“One wonders what the Tunisian authorities will come up with next to try to break this journalist, who has already served 11 years in prison,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard.
“The Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali government is continuing its tactic of gagging the press. The regime is happy to organise media events, even to host the World Summit on the Information Society in 2005, entrusting its organisation to a former head of special services known for his use of torture,” Ménard said, “but at the same time it stamps out freedom of information.”
On 18 July 2003, Zouari, a journalist with the unofficial Islamist newspaper “Al Fajr”, was sentenced to four months in prison for libel. The owner of a cybercafe had lodged a complaint against him over a dispute that broke out after she refused him access to the Internet. His appeal hearing was due to be held on 24 September but was postponed to 8 October, at the request of his lawyers.
At an earlier hearing on 29 August, Zouari was sentenced to nine months in prison for “failing to obey an administrative order”, after he was arrested by plainclothes police officers at Ben Guerdane market.
Under house arrest since his release from prison on 6 June 2002, after 11 years in prison, Zouari was ordered not to leave the governorate of Mednine. In fact, Ben Guerdane is located within the governorate.
The two appeal hearings both upheld the earlier sentences, leaving Zouari facing a total prison term of 13 months. The journalist’s lawyers now have 10 days to decide whether to appeal the case to a higher court.
