Newly released journalist sentenced

Reporters Without Borders has voiced its outrage over the eight-month prison sentence imposed on 23 August on newly-freed journalist Abdallah Zouari (see picture) 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 returned to jail just 10 weeks after his release upon completing nearly 11 years in prison. "This disgraceful sentence is clearly part of an offensive against freedom of expression and its defenders", said Reporters Without Borders 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 district court in Zarzis for "refusal to comply with an administrative decision". This refers to an interior ministry letter of 15 July notifying Zouari that he had to live in Zarzis, in the southern governorate of Mednin, although he has been residing in Tunis since his release on 6 June. Zouari had not complied, calling the order "arbitrary", and had filed an appeal against it with an administrative court which has not yet issued a decision. After arresting Zouari on 19 August in Tunis, the police had taken him to Harboub prison in the Mednin governorate. There, the judge in Zarzis 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 inasmuch as he had taken up residence in the outskirts of Tunis and only part of his family resides in Zarzis. His lawyers have decided to appeal against the jail sentence. A contributor to Al Fajr, the official mouthpiece of the Islamic movement Ennahda, Zouari 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 on completion of the jail sentence, which meant he must present himself regularly to the police station nearest his home. Al Fajr's editor, Hamadi Jebali, has been imprisoned since 1991. After completing a one-year sentence for an article criticizing the system of military courts, he was sentenced by the Tunis military court to 16 years imprisonment for "aggressive intention to change the nature of the state" and "belonging to an illegal organisation".