Zouari on hunger strike again in protest against internal banishment

Abdallah Zouari, a journalist who wrote for the Islamist opposition newspaper Al-Farj, began a hunger strike on 23 January in protest against his banishment to the south-eastern town of Zarzis, 500 km from Tunis where his family lives. He previously went on hunger strike in August 2003 in protest against his imprisonment for violating the banishment order, which was originally imposed in June 2002 when he was released from prison on completing a long sentence. His second release from prison, where the 46-year-old journalist has spent a total of 11 years, was in September 2004. -------------------------------------------------------- 10.09.2004 Journalist Abdallah Zouari released after serving sentence Abdallah Zouari, a journalist who wrote for the Islamist opposition newspaper Al-Farj, was released on 10 September after benefitting from the standard remission on a 13-month sentence imposed on 9 October 2003. Aged 48, Zouari remains subject to an administrative order banishing him to the south-eastern town of Zarzis that was imposed on his release from prison in 6 June 2002 after completing an earlier, 11-year sentence for "belonging to an illegal organisation." His wife and four children live in Tunis, where they are regularly summoned by the police and harassed. The 13-month term was a combined sentence imposed for two alleged offences, defamation and violating the banishment order. ----------------------------------------- 06.11.2003 - President urged to free imprisoned journalists Reporters Without Borders appealed to Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali today to mark his 16th anniversary of taking power on 7 November by releasing jailed journalists Hamadi Jebali and Abdallah Zouari and journalist cyber-dissident Zouhair Yahyaoui. The press freedom organisation also hailed the dignity and courage of lawyer Radhia Nasraoui, who has been on hunger-strike for the past month and will dedicate her protest on 7 November to prisoners of conscience. Hamadi Jebali, publisher of the weekly Al Fajr, unofficial organ of the Islamist group An Nahda, has been held since 1991 and was sentenced in 1992 by the Tunis military court to 16 years in prison for "aggressively seeking to change the nature of the state" and "belonging to an illegal organisation." He had just completed a one-year sentence for publishing an article criticising the system of military courts. Zouhair Yahyaoui, founder and editor of the news website TUNeZINE, was jailed on 4 June 2002. He was sentenced on 10 July to two years in prison for supposedly spreading false news and fraudulently using an Internet connection. In June 2003, he was the first winner of the new Reporters Without Borders - Globenet Cyber-Freedom Prize. Abdallah Zouari, who worked for Al Fajr, was sentenced on 8 October to a total of 13 months imprisonment for "defamation" and "failing to obey an administrative decision." He had been released from jail in June 2002 after 11 years in prison for "belonging to an illegal organisation."