Presidential pardon only hope for cyber-dissident Zouhair Yahyaoui

Reporters Without Borders today called on President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to grant a swift pardon to jailed cyber-dissident Zouhair Yahyaoui, who is in a very weak condition after staging a series of hunger strikes. The organisation issued its appeal after the Tunis court of cassation on 12 July rejected a request by Yahyaoui's lawyer for it to overturn his conviction. The court is the country's highest appeal court, and its ruling means that Yahyaoui has exhausted all possible means of legal recourse. "We condemn the hard line taken by the Tunisian judiciary with this cyber-dissident, whose only crime is to have dared to denounce President Ben Ali's totalitarian regime," Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard said. Yahyaoui was arrested on 4 June 2002 and was sentenced on 10 July 2002 to two years in prison for allegedly circulating false news and making fraudulent use of Internet connections. Last month he was awarded the first Reporters Without Borders cyber-freedom prize.