(RSF/IFEX) – On 21 August 2002, RSF protested the arrest of journalist Abdallah Zouari, of the banned weekly “Al Fajr”, on 19 August. His arrest follows his recent release from prison, where he languished for more than 10 years. Zouari’s arrest appears to stem from a recent administrative order issued by the Interior Ministry, banishing […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 21 August 2002, RSF protested the arrest of journalist Abdallah Zouari, of the banned weekly “Al Fajr”, on 19 August. His arrest follows his recent release from prison, where he languished for more than 10 years. Zouari’s arrest appears to stem from a recent administrative order issued by the Interior Ministry, banishing him to the south of the country.
“This arrest is unacceptable and the administrative measure taken by your department is utterly abusive,” RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said in a letter to Interior Minister Hedi M’henni. “The arbitrary arrest of a man whose life has been destroyed by more than 10 years in prison is simply inhuman,” Ménard stated. “We call on you to release this journalist immediately and to rescind the banishment order,” he added.
Following his arrest by police in Tunis on 19 August, Zouari was taken to Harboub Prison in the governorate of Mednin (southern Tunisia). Although he resides in Tunis, an Interior Ministry letter dated 15 July notified him that he was to be banished to Zarzis, in the Mednin governorate. Zouari had not complied, calling the order “arbitrary,” and had appealed to an administrative court, which has not yet issued a ruling. On 16 August, three days before his arrest, police had gone to his home in a Tunis suburb, threatening his 80-year-old aunt when they failed to find him there.
According to his lawyer, Zouari is accused of having refused to comply with the banishment order. The lawyer says there is no justification for the order since Zouari has been residing on the outskirts of Tunis and not in Zarzis, where only part of his family resides. A hearing on the case has been set for 23 August before a Zarzis court.
Zouari, a contributor to “Al Fajr”, the unofficial mouthpiece of the Islamic movement Ennahda, was arrested on 12 April 1991 and sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment for “belonging to an illegal organisation”. He was also sentenced to five years of administrative control on completion of the jail sentence, which means he must present himself regularly to the police station nearest his home. He was released on 6 June.
“What ecstasy to have my pen and paper back, to be able to jot down a few notes without the threat of a meticulous and humiliating body search,” Zouari told RSF earlier this month, explaining that “for years, it was strictly forbidden to have a pen or piece of paper, and there were terrible repercussions for those who tried to get them. The threats are still there, because while the pen is banned behind bars, it is muzzled outside, in this bigger prison.”
The editor of “Al Fajr”, Hamadi Jebali, has been imprisoned since 1991. After completing a one-year sentence for an article criticising the system of military courts, the Tunis Military Court sentenced him to 16 years’ imprisonment, for “aggressive intention to change the nature of the state” and “belonging to an illegal organisation”.
