Fahem Boukadous, a correspondent for the satellite TV station El Hiwar Ettounsi, has been released after 189 days in detention, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. He had been serving a four-year jail sentence for allegedly participating in protests in the Gafsa mining region, 350 km south of Tunis, in 2008.
Originally imposed in his absence, the sentence was confirmed by a Gafsa appeal court on July 6 and Boukadous was arrested nine days later. He was convicted on a charge of “forming a criminal association liable to attack persons and their property” although all he did was provide his TV station with footage of the protests. Boukadous is a chronic asthma sufferer whose health suffered a great deal during his six months in jail.
He was released on January 20 following the January 17 announcement by Mohamed Al-Ghannouchi, the provisional government’s prime minister, that all of Tunisia’s prisoners of conscience are to be freed. Ammar Amroussia, the news website Al-Badil correspondent who was arrested on December 29, was released from prison on the morning of January 17.
