TUNIS, Tunisia
A Tunisian appeals court has
sentenced a journalist to five years in prison for revealing details of a
counterterrorism operation and refusing to reveal his sources, according to his
lawyer, prompting outcry from media rights advocates.
Khalifa Guesmi’s lawyer said
he would appeal to Tunisia’s highest court. More than 30 rights groups issued a
statement denouncing the conviction and expressing concern about a
growing crackdown on dissent.
It appeared to be the worst
sentence against a journalist in Tunisia since the 2011 Arab Spring revolution
pushed out a long-serving autocrat and ushered in a new democratic system with
more media freedom.
Guesmi had been sentenced to
one year in prison by a lower court. Counterterrorism judges at the Tunis
appeals court on Monday upheld the conviction and toughened the sentence to
five years, Guesmi said in a Facebook post Tuesday.
Guesmi was convicted of
intentionally divulging sensitive security information in an article about
counterterrorism arrests in the Kairouan region where he is based, and then
refusing to reveal his sources, according to his lawyer Rahal Jalleli.
Jalleli called the appeals
court decision “unjust.” Speaking on Mosaique FM, a privately owned Tunisian
radio station, he said the source of the information was a security official
who has been convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role.
The national journalists’
union SNJT said the prison sentence “threatens the freedom of journalists and
damages Tunisia’s image. It is a political message that testifies to an
acceleration in punishment of the media and journalists, to intimidate them via
the judicial apparatus.”
Journalists’ union president
Yassine Jelassi called it a “disgrace for the Tunisian state.” He said 20
journalists were currently facing prosecution related to their work.
The union called for a sit-in
protest on Thursday to defend media freedom and the values of the pro-democracy
uprising.
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