A Tunisian military court has sentenced blogger Yassine Ayari to a year in prison for defaming the military, in a case that has been criticised by human rights groups, AFP and Al-Jazeera reported yesterday.
Ayari, 33, was arrested on December 25 on his return from Paris, following an initial three-year sentence passed the previous month in his absence.
The blogger told the court that the charges were a “settling of scores against me for criticising officers in the army”.
He had accused officers and Ministry of Defence officials of financial corruption.
“Today’s one year prison sentence imposed on Yassine Ayari by a military court exposes the extent of the limits on freedom of expression in Tunisia,” the London-based rights group Amnesty International said.
It said that during the session, when defence lawyers complained that journalists were not allowed to be present at the re-trial, the court’s president, who is a civil judge, responded by saying: “This is not a court, this is a [military] barracks.”
Dozens of protesters gathered outside the court demanding Ayari’s immediate release, saying the conviction was a violation of freedom of expression.
The demonstrators chanted “Down with military trials” and “No return to dictatorship”.
Meanwhile, the blogger’s defence team said they planned to appeal. “Freedom of expression is the only benefit of the revolution and today we see a blogger sentenced harshly by a military court for criticising the army,” Malek Ben Amor, his lawyer, said.
New York based Human Rights Watch has urged parliament to reform laws that lead to imprisonment for defaming or insulting state institutions, and to remove military courts’ jurisdiction over civilians.