Tunisian cyber-dissident sent to prison for two years

  Reporters Without Borders denounced as "scandalous" today's jailing of Tunisian cyber-dissident Zouhair Yahyaoui, editor of the online news site TUNeZINE.com, for two years and four months. "Yahyaoui is a fierce opponent of Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who does not tolerate the impertinence displayed in Yahyaoui's articles and has therefore punished him," said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard. "It is also clear he is paying for the fact that he is the nephew of Judge Mokhtar Yahyaoui, another of the president's critics. Since the 26 May constitutional referendum, the president has committed all kinds of abuses against his opponents in the confidence that he enjoys total impunity." Yahyaoui was sentenced to a year in prison for "putting out false news" and to a year and four months for "unauthorised use of an Internet connection" and "stealing from his employer." He decided not to attend court to hear the verdict because he said he had "no confidence in mock justice." Yahyaoui was arrested on 4 June at a Tunis computer firm where he was working by six plainclothes police, who showed no credentials and gave no reason for the arrest. He was taken to his home, where the police searched his bedroom and seized his computer equipment. His lawyer, who visited him in prison, said he had been slapped and hit on the head while being interrogated. He was undressed and tortured three times by being made to hang by his arms with feet barely touching the ground. After the last session of this, he revealed the password to his site, which enabled the authorities to block public access to it. Yahyaoui, who uses the pseudonym "Ettounsi" ("Tunisian"), set up the site in July last year to put out news about the fight for democracy and freedom in Tunisia. He published opposition material online and was one of the first people to circulate a letter from his uncle, Judge Mokhtar Yahyaoui, to President Ben Ali criticising the country's legal system. Between 26 and 28 May, TUNeZINE organised an online forum on the referendum and the state of the opposition which drew a very large number of participants. The website has been censured by the authorities from the start. But each week a list of "proxy" addresses was available so Tunisians could get round the blockage and access the site. A few hours after Yahyaoui's arrest, the site had vanished from the Internet. It has since returned but access from Tunisia is only possible with very powerful proxy addresses. Yahyaoui's website is TUNeZINE.com