(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has voiced its outrage over the eight-month prison sentence imposed on 23 August 2002 on newly-released journalist Abdallah Zouari. The journalist was sentenced for refusing to comply with an order banishing him to the south of the country. A former contributor to the banned weekly “Al Fajr”, Zouari has now returned to […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has voiced its outrage over the eight-month prison sentence imposed on 23 August 2002 on newly-released journalist Abdallah Zouari. The journalist was sentenced for refusing to comply with an order banishing him to the south of the country. A former contributor to the banned weekly “Al Fajr”, Zouari has now returned to jail, just 10 weeks after his release, after spending nearly 11 years in prison.
“This disgraceful sentence is clearly part of an offensive against freedom of expression and its defenders,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard, citing the recent sentences imposed on Hamma Hammami and Zouhair Yahyaoui. “President Ben Ali seems to think he can act with total impunity since 11 September 2001, and all the more since the 26 May 2002 referendum that allows him to seek a fourth term,” Ménard said. “It is simply inhuman to impose an additional jail sentence on a man whose life has already been destroyed by 11 years in prison,” he added, calling for Zouari’s immediate release.
The eight-month jail sentence was imposed on Zouari by the Zarzis District Court for his “refusal to comply with an administrative decision”. This refers to a 15 July Interior Ministry letter notifying Zouari that he was required to live in Zarzis, in the southern governorate of Mednin, though he had been residing in Tunis since his release on 6 June. Zouari did not comply with the order, calling it “arbitrary.” He filed an appeal against the order with an administrative court, which has not yet issued a ruling.
After arresting Zouari on 19 August in Tunis, the police took him to Harboub Prison in the Mednin governorate. There, a Zarzis judge turned down his lawyer’s request for a postponement of the hearing. One of Zouari’s lawyers said there was no justification for the order banishing him to Zarzis since he had taken up residence on the outskirts of Tunis, and only part of his family resides in Zarzis. His lawyers have decided to appeal against the jail sentence.
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 a further five years of administrative control upon completion of his jail sentence, which means he must present himself regularly to the police station nearest his home.
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”.
