Internet journalist Zouhair Yahyaoui started a hunger strike in jail

Imprisoned Internet journalist Zouhair Yahyaoui, founder of the website TUNeZINE (www.tunezine.com), has been suffering from a gum abscess and severe headaches since 10 January 2003, and the authorities have refused to provide him with medical attention. Yahyaoui began a hunger strike on 17 January in reaction to the very difficult conditions under which he is being detained. RSF is very concerned about the young man's deteriorating health and has asked the Tunisian authorities to release him without delay. "Not only does the Tunisian regime imprison persons whose only crime is to express themselves, but it also detains them in deplorable conditions," RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard stated. Yahyaoui has been suffering from an infected gum and acute headaches in the last week. Further to his repeated requests for medical attention, prison authorities gave him two aspirins. On 16 January, the journalist informed his family members, who visit him every Thursday, that he would be starting a hunger strike as of the next day. "In any event, the suffering is so intense that I am unable to eat," he told his relatives. Yahyaoui is incarcerated at Borj el Amri prison, located 30 kilometres from the capital, Tunis. He shares a cell with about 100 other detainees. On 10 July 2002, the Tunis Appeals Court sentenced Yahyaoui to two years' imprisonment for "propagation of false news". Plainclothes police officers arrested him in a cybercafe on 4 June. During his interrogation, he was subjected to three "suspension" sessions, a means of torture by which a person is suspended by the arms with their feet barely touching the ground. Yahyaoui wrote under the alias "Ettounsi", which means "The Tunisian" in Arabic. He founded the TUNeZINE website in July 2001 in an effort to circulate information on democracy and freedom in Tunisia and publish opposition documents online. He was one of the first people to publish Judge Mokhtar Yahyaoui's controversial letter to the president denouncing the country's judicial system. Hamadi Jebali, director of the weekly "Al Fajr", the organ of the An Nahda Islamic movement, has been jailed since 1991. He also started a hunger strike in mid-January to protest against the poor conditions under which he is being held. The Tunis Military Court sentenced him to 16 years' imprisonment in 1992. Jebali was found guilty of "aggression with intent to change the nature of the state" and "membership in an illegal organisation". At the time of his sentencing, Jebali had just served a one-year prison term for publishing an article in which he criticised the country's military tribunal system. On 14 December 2002, Hedi Yahmed, a journalist from the private weekly "Réalités", was summoned by the state prosecutor to discuss a report on the state of Tunisian prisons. He was forced to resign a short time later. Plainclothes police officers went to his home in Gabès in early January and asked his family to disclose the journalist's location.