Tunisian Blogger Arrested
By Curt on Dec 3, 2007 in Slim Boukhdhir, Tunisia
According to IFEX (via CPJ), Tunisian blogger and journalist Slim Boukhdhir has been arrested. (His name is written “salim” on his blog.) Boukhdhir has criticized Tunisia’s president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali publicly in the past.
On Monday, police in Sfax, Tunisia’s second largest city, detained Slim Boukhdhir, a well-known blogger and contributor to the London-based Al-Quds Al Arabi. He was charged with “aggression against a public employee” and “violation of public morality standards,” according to the journalist’s lawyer. Under the penal code, the charges could bring 18 months in prison. Boukhdhir was also charged under a 1993 national identity card law with “refusal to show his identification card to a public security agent.” He could be fined under that law.
A court in the suburban city of Sakiet Ezzeit denied his release today. The hearing is scheduled to resume on December 4. Authorities did not disclose the basis for the charges.
