Tunisian journalist serving five-year sentence subjected to appalling conditions in prison
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) denounces appalling conditions in which a Tunisian journalist is being made to serve a five-year prison sentence for refusing to reveal his sources for a terrorism story. He must be released, RSF says.
Radio journalist Khalifa Guesmi has been mistreated since his arrest on 3 September to begin serving the sentence, and those who have seen him in prison describe him as tired, weak and demoralised. A reporter for privately-owned radio Mosaïque FM and previously a reporter for the daily newspaper Al Chourouk and the TV channels Attessia TV and Carthage+, Guesmi distinguished himself by his investigative coverage of security issues. But now he is serving the longest sentence ever passed on a journalist in Tunisia and has come to symbolise the suppression of media freedom in his country.
The 48-year-old journalist has been mistreated ever since being taken to Mornaguia prison, in a southwestern suburb of the capital, Tunis, on 3 September to serve his sentence, RSF has learned. He is verbally attacked by guards, he is forced to share his bed with two or three other detainees, he is held in cells containing dozens of detainees.He is also constantly subjected to other, insidious forms of abuses such as being made to wait for hours to see his wife at her weekly visit.
At a press conference organised for Human Rights Day on 10 December, his wife said: “Khalifa is a real journalist who just did his job according to the principles of journalism. He should not be in prison. He should be with his family and at his workplace.”
One of his lawyers, Mohamed Ali Bouchiba, reported that there were “very minimal improvements” to his prison conditions at the beginning of December but they are still unacceptable. “Instead of being in a cell with 100 detainees, he is now in a cell with 20 detainees and they call that an improvement,” Bouchiba said, reporting that Guesmi is very tired and demoralised. “He does not accept being in prison on a terrorism charge when all he did was work as a journalist in a completely independent manner. Khalifa Guesmi is the victim of a terrible injustice (...) This cannot go on.”
“In addition to the injustice of the Tunis appeal court’s verdict and sentence, Khalifa Guesmi is now being subjected to insults and harassment in prison. We note a minimal but totally inadequate improvement in his prison conditions and we reiterate our support for this journalist, whose work has complied with media ethics and does not justify his imprisonment. The harassment of this media professional must stop and above all he must be released.
Guesmi was prosecuted on a charge of “disclosing information in violation of the provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Law and Penal Code”, for a story for the Mosaïque FM website about the dismantling of a terrorist cell in Kairouan, a city 150 km southwest of Tunis. After his lawyers demonstrated the spurious nature of the charge, it was clear that the authorities were persecuting him simply for refusing to reveal his sources.
The National Union of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) said it regarded his sentence as a “political message that clearly expresses a dramatic escalation in the persecution of the media and journalists, and in attempts to subjugate them by using the judiciary.”
Tunisia is ranked 121st out of 180 countries in RSF's 2023 World Press Freedom Index.
