A lawyer arrested for posting an article online

Reporters Without Borders has called for the release of lawyer Mohammed Abu who was arrested in Tunis on 1st March 2005 for posting an article online dealing with the torture of political prisoners in Tunisia. "We would like to remind President Ben Ali that he approved the final statement of the last UN summit on the Internet (World Summit on the Information Society -WSIS) that stipulates that freedom of expression is a "essential foundation"of the information society. How can he boast about having initiated this summit while trampling so openly on its founding principles?" the worldwide press freedom organisation asked. Mohammed Abu, a lawyer and human rights activist was arrested on the order of an examining magistrate at a court in Tunis. He is accused of publishing an article on the Tunisnews website in August 2004 comparing torture committed against political prisoners in Tunisia to abuses carried out by US soldiers in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. He expressed surprise that Tunisian criticism only applied to events taking place 2,400 kilometres away and not to the failings of its own regime. The lawyer was charged, under the press code, for "publication of false reports to disturb the public order", "insult to the judiciary", "incitement to break the laws of the country" and "publishing articles to disturb the public order." He faces a prison term of up to 10 years. Abu posted an article on the same site, on 28 February 2005, about Tunisia's invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to attend the second phase of the WSIS in Tunis. In this article, which could also be behind his arrest, he made an ironic comparison between Ariel Sharon and Ben Ali, whom he said were leaders in the same mould. The lawyer has been held since 2 March in the 9 April Prison in Tunis.