(RSF/IFEX) – On 5 July 2001, the judge who is presiding over the Sihem Bensedrine case ordered that the journalist remain in detention. “This decision is scandalous. We will continue our efforts to demand Sihem Bensedrine’s release,” stated RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. “But the French authorities and international institutions must also react firmly to this […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 5 July 2001, the judge who is presiding over the Sihem Bensedrine case ordered that the journalist remain in detention. “This decision is scandalous. We will continue our efforts to demand Sihem Bensedrine’s release,” stated RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. “But the French authorities and international institutions must also react firmly to this new affront to press freedom by the Tunisian regime,” he added.
Bensedrine, who was heard for over a half hour at Tunis’s Law Courts, refused to respond to the judge, as most of her lawyers were barred from attending the hearing. According to a friend of the journalist, the judge now has four days to respond to Bensedrine’s lawyers’ latest request for her temporary release from custody. The approximately 150 lawyers who had joined in her defence decided to withdraw from the case before the begnning of the hearing, saying that “restrictions [had been imposed] on [her] right to a defence.”
Bensedrine, editor of the online magazine “Kalima”, secretary-general of the Observatory for the defence of freedom of the press, publishing and creation (Observatoire pour la défense de la liberté de la presse, de l’édition et de la création OLPEC), affiliated with RSF’s international network and spokesperson for the National Council for Liberties in Tunisia (Conseil national pour les libertés en Tunisie, CNLT), was detained on 26 June at approximately 10:00 a.m. (local time), at the Tunis airport, upon her flight’s arrival from Marseille. She is accused of having broadcast “false news with an aim towards disturbing public order” in remarks she made on the London-based television station Al Mustaquilla on 17 June. The journalist was taken to the prison for women in Manouba (a western suburb of Tunis).
After having been barred from receiving visitors from 28 June to 1 July, the journalist was able to meet with several of her lawyers before the hearing. However, despite her many requests, lawyer Radhia Nasraoui was refused access to the prison. Bensedrine stated that her conditions in detention were “relatively proper,” though she is not allowed to have books or newspapers. On 3 July, a gathering of the journalist’s supporters in front of the Manouba prison was broken up by police officers. Barricades had been erected in the vicinity of the prison.
