Internet writer Al Mansouri gets 18-month prison sentence

Voiced outrage at the 18-month prison sentence passed by a Tripoli court on Abdel Razak Al Mansouri, an internet writer and former bookseller, Reporters Without Borders today reiterated its call for his immediate and unconditional release. Following his arrest on 12 January, Mansouri was charged on 28 May with “unauthorised possession of a pistol” but the real reason for his arrest and conviction was almost certainly his articles criticising the regime, which were posted on the www.akhbar-libya.com website. “This disproportionate sentence appears to be a new attempt by the Libyan government to gag free expression,” Reporters Without Borders said. “By convicting a cyber-dissident on a trumped-up charge, Libya's courts have once against shown that under Col. Gaddafi's rule they will do whatever it takes to silence dissenters.” Mansouri's trial was supposed to start at the end of the summer but it was postponed twice, the first time at the request of Mansouri's lawyer, who wanted more time to prepare the defence, the second time after he was fractured his pelvis in a fall from a high bunk bed and had to be hospitalised. Although he was in the custody of the security services from 12 January to 28 May, these four months will not be offset against his sentence. On 27 October, Mansouri's close relatives released the text of a letter they had previously sent to the Libyan government, news media and human rights organisations in which they criticised the prison sentence and claimed that the authorities had pressured them to say he was “mentally disturbed.” The text of the letter is available at http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/11/03/libya11969.htm Mansouri is being held in a detention centre run by the internal security services in the Fashloom district of Tripoli. His family has had no contact with him since 28 May, when responsibility for his case was transferred to the prosecutor's office.