President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

A Tunisian court on Tuesday sentenced Zouhair Makhlouf, a journalist who edits an opposition daily, to three months in jail for publishing damaging photos without consent, a judicial source said. The editor of El-Mawkif, mouthpiece of the Progressist Democratic Party, was tried on November 24 at Grombalia, 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Tunis. He also edits "Essabil on Line," a website based in Germany. The charges arose from a video report that Makhlouf made on the state of the environment in the industrial zone of Nabeul in northeast Tunisia. Makhlouf was arrested on October 21 and charged on the basis of a complaint ... Read Full Story

A Tunisian court on Thursday sentenced a journalist and vocal critic of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to six months in prison for assaulting a woman. Taoufik Ben Brik, 49, had protested his innocence, saying he was the victim of a set-up by the North African country's political police because of his criticism of Ben Ali. Ben Brik's lawyer Mokhtar Trifi said the court found Ben Brik guilty of voluntary physical harm, damaging the goods of others and offense to public morality. "I am the victim and not the accused in this affair which has been entirely set up by the political police," ... Read Full Story

A journalist known for his critical stance toward Tunisia's government was sentenced to six months in prison Thursday for what his lawyer called a trumped-up assault charge. The French government expressed regret at the ruling against Taoufik Ben Brik, and attorney Mokhtar Trifi said he plans to appeal the "very severe" sentence. He called the proceedings "a political trial par excellence." Ben Brik, 49, has written stories critical of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali for French media including news weekly Le Nouvel Observateur. He was detained last month shortly after Ben Ali's re-election to a fifth term. He was convicted of damaging a ... Read Full Story

Tunisian journalist Taoufik Ben Brik Thursday told a court trying him for assault on a woman that he was framed by police because of his political reports. "I am the victim and not the defendant in the case entirely set up by the political police," Ben Brik told the judge, when asked about the charge list against him. The court announced that it would hand down a verdict on November 26. Ben Brik, 49, said he was in a "police trap" for his writing on the regime of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the recent electoral winner of a fifth mandate in the ... Read Full Story

Rights group Amnesty International appealed Tuesday for the immediate release of Tunisian journalist Taoufik Ben Brik, who is facing jail on charges that he says are politically motivated. The 49-year-old will hear his fate on Thursday on charges of assaulting a woman and damaging her car, which he claims were the result of a "police trap" to punish him for his writings on President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's regime. "Taoufik Ben Brik is being prosecuted on politically-motivated charges and he has not received a fair trial," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's director for the Middle East and North Africa. "He is a prisoner ... Read Full Story