Cyber-dissident Zouhair Yahyaoui completes a year in prison

Reporters Without Borders called for the release of jailed cyber-dissident Zouhair Yahyaoui today, the first anniversary of his arrest in an Internet café. The founder of the website TUNeZINE, Yahyaoui is serving a two-year prison sentence. He recently began another hunger strike. "We call on President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali to release Zouhair Yahyaoui immediately and unconditionally," Reporters Without Borders Robert Ménard said. "This young man has staged three hunger strikes since the start of the year and could suffer serious aftereffects if he is not released soon." Reporters Without Borders also called for the release of journalist Hamadi Jebali, who has been imprisoned since 1991. When Yahyaoui received a visit from his family in Borj el Amri prison (30 km from Tunis) on 22 May, he had to cut short the conversation because he was so weak. "The publicity about his arrest and the campaigns for his release in both Tunisia and abroad have just fuelled official resentment and vindictiveness", according to his family, which says he is the victim of "discriminatory treatment." The guards dirty his food. He is banned from reading books. His correspondences is stolen. He is denied his daily exercise. He is threatened by his guards. Yahyaoui has often told his family he could not stand the conditions of his detention and has staged three hungers strikes so far this year to protest against this "inhuman treatment." Following his arrest on 4 June 2002 by plain-clothes police in an Internet café, Yahyaoui was subjected to interrogation that included three sessions of "suspension," a form of torture in which the victim is suspended by the arms with his feet barely touching the ground. The Tunis appeal court sentenced him on 10 July 2002 to two years in prison for "spreading false news." As a writer, Yahyaoui used the pseudonym "Ettounsi," which means Tunisian in Arabic. He created the TUNeZINE website in July 2001 to distribute opposition documents online and thereby provide information about the fight for democracy and freedoms in Tunisia. He was one of the first to distribute a letter to the president by Judge Mokhtar Yahyaoui criticising the judicial system. Hamadi Jebali was the editor of Al Fajr, the mouthpiece of the Islamic movement Ennahda. Jailed in 1991, he initially served a one-year sentence for an article criticizing the system of military courts. Then, in 1992, 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". He was transferred from Sfax prison to Bizerte prison in March. Reporters Without Borders created a system of sponsorships more than 13 years ago, calling on news media to sponsor journalists in prison. Some 120 news organisations throughout the world sponsor detained journalists by regularly asking the authorities to release them and by publicising their situation, so that they are not forgotten. Zouhair Yahyaoui is sponsored by Avaldoci, the Marseille Press Club, the Périgord Press Club, the Periódico de Catalunya, Fraternitaire, El Triangle, Le Nouvelliste, liberation.fr, Maison de la Presse de Mons, Radio Populare, REE and www.categorynet.com, festival du FIGRA. Hamadi Jebali is sponsored by the Toulon Press Club.