Tunisian journalist under house arrest for five years

Tunis - The Tunisian government must respect the rule of law and terminate the house arrest imposed on the journalist and prisoner of opinion Abdallah Al-Zawary for five years, said the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRinfo).

Al-Zawary, Tunisian journalist and a former deputy editor-in-chef for Al-Fajr newspaper has been under house arrest since June 2002.

After spending 11 years in prison, Al-Zawary was released in June 2002, but then immediately put under house arrest for five years. The Interior Ministry decided to send him to Al-Gerba district of Gergeis City, in the far south of the country and about 500km from the Tunisian capital. The sentence also meant that Al-Zawary would be separated from his family and children. In effect, therefore, the house arrest was a form of exile and punishment not only for Al-Zawary himself, but also his family.

During his exile for 5 years in Gergeis City, which is located in the far south of Tunisia, Al-Zawary has been subjected to harassment and fabricated legal restrictions such as limiting his movement to within 30km. He was also prevented from using internet cafes and has suffered other forms of harassment.

About Abdallah Al-Zawary

Abdallah Al-Zawary is known among many of defenders of prisoners of opinion as the ‘Nelson Mandela of the Arab world.' He was in prison for 16 years and under house arrest for 5 years. All his protests have been non-violent, but the Tunisian government refuses to acknowledge that he is a journalist and a political prisoner, solely due to his membership in the Islamic movement.

He was arrested for the first time in 1981 after he submitted a request to establish a political party, and released only in 1984. His second arrest followed in 1987 in a campaign launched against the Islamic movement, and then he was released again in 1989. In 1991, he was arrested for his membership in the Islamic Renaissance Movement in Tunisia. He was in prison for 11 years and released in 2002, when he was put under house arrest for 5 years, which was set to end at the beginning of this month, June 2007.

The two websites Al-Huwar Net and Tunisia News decided to launch signature campaigns calling upon the Tunisian government to put into effect the court order for his release, which obliges the judiciary to end the house arrest, allowing Al-Zawary to go back to his family immediately.

Source: Hrinfo