(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has protested heavy sentences upheld on appeal against six Internet users in the southern city of Zarzis. The six were accused of using the Internet to plot terrorist attacks. Their 19-years-and-three-month sentences were reduced on appeal to 13 years’ imprisonment. The convictions were based entirely on confessions extracted under duress and not […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has protested heavy sentences upheld on appeal against six Internet users in the southern city of Zarzis. The six were accused of using the Internet to plot terrorist attacks. Their 19-years-and-three-month sentences were reduced on appeal to 13 years’ imprisonment.
The convictions were based entirely on confessions extracted under duress and not supported by any real evidence, according to RSF, which expects a higher court of appeal to overturn the sentences.
“The charges against the young men from Zarzis were far too flimsy to warrant such a harsh sentence,” RSF said. “Their use of the Internet has served as a pretext for these unfounded convictions.”
The organisation called on the French, Swedish and German governments to react firmly to the sentences, which affect citizens or residents of these countries.
Hamza Mahruk, aged 21, Amor Faruk Chlendi, aged 21, Amor Rached, aged 21, Abdel-Ghaffar Guiza, aged 21, Aymen Mecharek, aged 22, of dual German-Tunisian nationality, and Ridha Hadj Brahim, aged 38, had their sentences reduced from 19 years and three months to 13 years in prison. Sentences of 26 years pronounced in absentia against Ayub Sfaxi, aged 21, a French resident, and Tahar Guemir, aged 20, of dual Swedish-Tunisian nationality and living in Sweden, were upheld.
The eight were first sentenced on 6 April 2004. The last member of the Zarzis group, Abderrazak Bourguiba, aged 18, was sentenced to 25 months in prison on 16 April by a young offenders’ court. His appeal will be heard separately.
The Zarzis group was dubbed “The Prophet’s Brigades” at their trial. Sfaxi said, however, that he had never heard the name before, and believed it to be a fabrication of the authorities. He also said that none of his friends had stolen chemicals from their school in Zarzis, as the indictment stated.
The case built against them appears to have been designed to bolster the thesis of a terrorist plot fomented by Islamists close to al-Qaida, in order to deflect criticism of the Tunisian government by the international community. However, no evidence of the young men’s membership in an Islamist network or of any intention to organise terrorist attacks was presented at the trial. Mecharek, a German citizen, was also accused of attempting to bring a bazooka into the country, but the allegation remains unfounded.
The convictions were based entirely on signed confessions from the young Internet users. Their lawyers said however these were invalid because they had been extracted under torture. They announced plans for a further appeal.
The initial convictions of the Zarzis group brought no official reaction from the French, German or Swedish governments. According to figures released by Tunisia’s National Tourist Office (Office national du tourisme tunisien, ONTT) and quoted in the online magazine “Management & Nouvelles Technologies”, tourism increased by 19 percent from January to June 2004, compared to the same period in the previous year. In the Zarzis region alone, tourism leapt by 28 percent. Nearly one million European tourists visited Tunisia this year, 160,000 of them Germans.
On 22 June, RSF published a report on violations of free expression on the Internet in Tunisia. The report can be downloaded at: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=10768
