CATEGORY: Tunisia
Tunisian court fails to review verdict in Muhammad cartoon case
Tunisia’s Court of Cassation yesterday failed to review the seven-and-a-half year sentence of Jabeur Mejri, who was convicted last year of publishing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad on Facebook. Mejri’s lawyer, Mohammed Mselmi, told AFP that the demand for an appeal “was mysteriously withdrawn”, even though a hearing had been scheduled on 25 April. The defence team will now seek a presidential pardon for their client. Last March, a primary court in Mahdia (eastern Tunisia) sentenced Mejri and his friend Ghazi Beji to seven and half years in prison. Beji, who published a satirical book entitled “the illusion of Islam” online, fled Tunisia. Mejir, however, has been in prison since he was arrested on 5 March 2012. Both men were fined […]
Free speech on hold in Tunisia as rapper faces jail
On 21 March, a Tunisian court sentenced rapper Ala Yacoubi (aka Weld El15) to two years in prison in absentia, over an anti-police song and video, Boulicia Kleb published on YouTube. In the song, Weld El15 describes police officers as “dogs” and...
Free speech on hold in Tunisia as rapper faces jail
On 21 March, a Tunisian court sentenced rapper Ala Yacoubi (aka Weld El15) to two years in prison in absentia, over an anti-police song and video, Boulicia Kleb published on YouTube. In the song, Weld El15 describes police officers as “dogs” and...
Tunisian woman under fire for bare-breasted protest
A 19-year-old Tunisian women’s rights activist, known only as Amina, has come under fire for posting a topless photograph of herself online. Amina is a member of FEMEN, a Ukranian radical feminist group notorious for their topless protests. Weeks ago, Amina uploaded a picture of herself to a website she started for the group in Tunisia, with ”My Body is My Own and Not the Source of Anyone’s Honor” written across her bare chest. Late last week, the Paris-based head of the group, Inna Shevchenko, claimed that Amina had been committed to a psychiatric ward by her family members. Shevchenko told the Atlantic that she last heard from Amina on 18 March. Her disappearance came after a 16 March appearance on Tunisian talkshow Labes to […]
Free speech in Tunisia: New year, same fears
Free speech in Tunisia will continue to remain in jeopardy as a new year kicks off. During the next few months, the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) is scheduled to adopt Tunisia’s new constitution. Last December, the NCA published a second...
Take action to end impunity in Tunisia
From 1 to 23 November, The International Free Expression Exchange's (IFEX) International Day to End Impunity campaign is highlighting cases where "an individual who has been threatened, attacked or worse for expressing themselves." In all the case...
Tunisia builds blasphemy law
In Tunisia, politicians and the people are abandoning freedom of expression. In a conservative society, Islamists’ obsession with blasphemy and the opposition’s passivity in defying an illiberal constitutional clause are placing free speech and...
New-era privacy law drafted to protect Tunisians from the surveillance state
Tunisia's data protection authority is in the process of amending the country's 2004 privacy law, which will regulate the use of personal data. Hacking into activists’ emails, tapping into dissidents’ phone calls, or installing surveillance...
Banning blasphemy: New Tunisian bill threatens free speech
Tunisia's ruling party, the Islamist Ennahdha movement, seek to criminalise blasphemy. The Ennahdha party filed a blasphemy bill on 1 August in response to what their leaders describe as “a continuous increase in number of offences against the...