Al-Ahram Weekly | Region

		27 June - 3 July 2002 Issue No. 592 Region	Current issue Previous issue Site map
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Recommend this page

Seeking freedom
THE TUNISIAN court ruling that sentenced Zouheir Yahiaoui, the editor of online publication Tunezine and an Internet café employee, to 16 months in prison has come under fire from human rights groups who described it as harsh and in violation of free expression.
The court sentenced Yahiaoui, on Thursday, to prison for intentionally publishing "false" information on a Web site.
He also received another 12 months for stealing an Internet connection from his employer at an Internet cafe. Yahiaoui refused to appear in court, in protest against the judicial system.
The first charge, reportedly, comes in response to a number of articles posted on Tunezine that are highly critical of the Tunisian government. According to reports, Yahiaoui and other dissidents discussed a tourism boycott in a bid to put pressure on the government to improve its human rights record.
Also among the articles was a recent piece criticising the 26 May constitutional referendum in which 99.52 per cent of voters approved constitutional changes allowing President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali -- in power for the last 15 years -- to run for a fourth term.
Human rights groups said Yahiaoui had been singled out because he was the nephew of Judge Mokhtar Yahiaoui, a fierce critic of the president who was sacked last December after complaining to Ben Ali that the judiciary was "under siege from the executive".
"The authorities have... attempted to silence Judge Mokhtar Yahiaoui who used his right to free speech to call for respect for judicial independence. They found a new target in Zouheir Yahiaoui," said London-based Amnesty International in a statement that was issued before the verdict.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, (CPJ), wrote a letter to the Tunisian president stating that it "views the arrest and criminal prosecution of journalists for publishing unflattering news about the government as a clear violation of the internationally recognised right to free expression".
The CPJ, which put the Tunisian president last year on its list of "press tyrants", also urged President Ben Ali to "do everything within your power to ensure that Yahiaoui is freed immediately and that the charges against him are dropped. We further ask that you use your position as president of Tunisia to provide guarantees that enable Yahyaoui and other Tunisian journalists to practice their professional work freely and without official interference".
Earlier this month, the North African country's only legal human rights group accused the government of muzzling the media and said Tunisia's human rights record deteriorated even further last year.

Car bomb in Riyadh
SAUDI authorities launched an investigation into the car bomb that killed British banker Simon John Veness in Riyadh on Thursday. The explosion that ripped through Veness' car occurred in the Nakheel residential area near his house. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Recalling a string of bombings in 2000-1, which officials say were linked to alcohol smuggling, a Saudi security source said the killing might be linked to score-settling in the illicit trade.
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he was concerned at these reports. "At my request, today, we will be making inquiries through our embassy in Riyadh to seek some clarifications," he said.
"I have no further information; of course we are seeking a great deal of information as to why it happened."
However friends of Veness said they do not believe that he has been involved in any illegal activity and blamed the attack on Islamic extremism.
Concerns about anti-Western sentiments have resurfaced in the kingdom since the 11 September attacks and the ensuing war on terrorism that many Saudis perceive as an assault on Islam. But there have been no reports of violence linked to anti- Western extremists in the kingdom.
However, westerners working in the oil-rich kingdom are on edge after Saudi authorities said last week they had arrested seven members of Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qa'eda network on suspicion of planning "terrorist" attacks on some of the country's vital targets.
"There is a level of concern but people are not exactly queuing up at the airport," said a Western diplomat.

Violence continues in Algeria
TEN PEOPLE were killed including seven civilians over the weekend in Algeria, the Algerian state news agency (APS) reported on Sunday.
APS, citing a security source, said Islamic extremists opened fire on youths playing football on Saturday evening near a bus-station in Zeralda, about 20 kilometres west of Algiers, and killed six. Another three youths were wounded in the attack, one seriously.
Also, on Sunday, two policemen and an Islamic extremist died in a clash in Relizane, the far northwest of the country.
Meanwhile a child who was wounded in a bomb attack on Friday in Chlef, some 200 kilometres west of Algiers, succumbed to his wounds on Saturday.
According to press reports and official announcements, the death toll in Algeria's civil war has risen to at least 74 this month. Nearly 700 people have been killed this year in the decade-old conflict which broke out in 1992 when the authorities cancelled a parliamentary election that the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) were poised to win.
By Rasha Saad

Send a letter to the Editor Recommend this page

ARCHIVES
Letter from the Editor
Editorial Board
Subscription
Advertise!

WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly
Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time
weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg

Al-Ahram Organisation