Reporters Without Borders calls for case to be dropped against Om Zied

Reporters Without Borders called for the case to be dropped against Om Zied, editor in chief of the on-line magazine Kalima, as her appeal trial was due to open on 31 December. She was jailed for eight months suspended and fined 1,200 dinars (about 800 euros) on 18 November on charges of illegally holding foreign currency and its transfer to an unauthorised person. "President Ben Ali goes about with all the appearance of a democrat and realises that it no longer goes down well to arrest or even imprison journalists. The authorities now rely on a raft of measures with no direct connection to freedom of expression, to gag those who dare to disobey the will of the master, said Robert Ménard, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders. "The Om Zied trial is in this mould: legally trumped up as demonstrated by a collective of lawyers, outrageous in the severity of the sentence and absurd in the choice of date for the appeal, 31 December, to ensure it passes unnoticed during New Year celebrations. We call on the Tunisian courts to discharge the case." Zied was summoned under her real name of Neziha Rejiba on 25 September 2003, by the head of customs investigations for exchange offences and accused of giving a young Tunisian 170 euros. However Zied had committed no offence since the law allows one week to change back currency after a journey abroad. At the end of her trial on 19 November her lawyers at first announced that she had been acquitted, but a suspended prison sentence and a fine were recorded at the court clerk's office. Some 15 lawyers had come to defend the journalist at the trial, which they had denounced as politically rigged to tarnish (their client) because of her political activities and courageous articles." The lawyers contended that the accusations against her were unfounded and that the charges were politically motivated. Zied, a human rights activist, has been editor in chief of Kalima (www.kalima.com), which is banned in Tunisia, since it began appearing in October 2000. Hosted abroad the site is still unavailable in Tunisia but a printed version circulates secretly. For the past two years the journalist has suffered relentless persecution in connection with her on-line writing and opinions broadcast on satellite channels in which she speaks out against the president's personality cult.