Call for release of journalist on hunger strike for past 10 days

Reporters Without Borders today reiterated its call for the immediate release of journalist Abdallah Zouari, who has been on a hunger strike since the moment of his arrest on 17 August and who is due to appear before the district court in the south-eastern town of Zarzis tomorrow. The organisation also again urged the authorities to stop harassing Zouari, who previously served an 11-year prison sentence. Zouari is staging his hunger strike to protest against his arrest by plain-clothes police in the market of Ben Guerdane (500 km south of Tunis) on a charge of "violating an administrative control measure to which he is subject." He is being held in Harboub prison in the governorate of Médnine. Although his family lives in Tunis, Zouari was banished to Zarzis when he was released on 6 June 2002 on completing his 11-year sentence, and he is still subject to this banishment order. His lawyers say the order allows him freedom of movement throughout the governorate of Médnine, including the place where he was arrested. On 18 July, the Zarzis district court sentenced Zouari to four months in prison for "defamation" as a result of an argument with a Internet café manager who refused to give him access to the Internet. He has not yet begun serving this sentence because his lawyers appealed against the conviction and the appeal has not yet been heard. Aged 46, Zouari is a journalist with Al-Farj, a publication that supports the Islamist opposition movement Ennahda.