A Tunisian blogger has been imprisoned after the Tunis military court
sentenced him to a three-year term for "defaming the army" and
"insulting military high command" through Facebook posts.
Authorities arrested Yassine Ayari upon his arrival at Tunis-Carthage
airport from France on December 24, 2014. On December 25, he appeared
before a military judge who informed him that a military court had
convicted him in absentia on November 18. In another trial on November
18, the same military court sentenced in absentia Sahbi Jouini, a police
union leader, to two years in prison under the same article of the
military justice code concerning defamation.
"In a single day, Tunisia's military court imposed prison sentences
on a union leader and a blogger for speech offenses, even though neither
was present for his trial," said Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East and
North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "This is not worthy of the
new Tunisia."
At the December 25 hearing, the judge ordered Ayari's transfer to
Mornaguia Prison to begin serving his sentence. International law
applicable in Tunisia prohibits the trial of civilians before military
courts. Ayari's lawyer, Malek Ben Ammar, requested a retrial, which the
court scheduled for January 6, 2015. Jouini is provisionally free,
pending his retrial. On December 30, the First Instance military
tribunal adjourned his case to February 26, 2015.
Ayari, a Tunisian national who lives in France, has sparked
controversy with his posts. A supporter of the unsuccessful presidential
candidate Moncef Marzouki, Ayari published attacks on the eventual
winner of the December 21 vote, Béji Caïd Essebsi. In August and
September, Ayari published several Facebook posts criticizing Minister
of Defense Ghazi Jeribi for refusing to appoint a new head for military
intelligence, and for weakening military institutions. He also made the
same allegation that led to the conviction of Jouini, namely that the
Defense Ministry had received, but failed to act on, precise advance
intelligence about an attack by militants on July 16, 2014, that killed
16 soldiers and wounded another 23 in the Chaambi Mountains area close
to the Algerian border.
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