Tunisia
Tunisia releases prisoners held over Gafsa protests - 6 November 2009
Sixty-eight people held in connection with protests against unemployment and high living costs in the resource-rich Gafsa region have been released.Activist on trial for denouncing pollution in Tunisia must be released - 5 November 2009
Amnesty International has called for the release of a human rights activist who went on trial this week for making a video about pollution in Tunisia and posting it on Facebook.Student activist held in Tunisia at risk of torture - 3 November 2009
Mohammed Soudani has been detained incommunicado since he met with two French radio journalists who were covering the presidential and legislative elections that took place on 25 October.Assaults on journalists in Tunisia must be punished - 30 October 2009
The assault of two independent journalists in Tunisia and the arrest of a third in the wake of last week's elections must be punished, Amnesty International said.Tunisia: Assaults on journalists must be punished - 30 October 2009
The assault of two independent journalists in Tunisia and the arrest of a third in the wake of last week’s elections must be punished, Amnesty International said today. “It appears that these three journalists were targeted because they have criticized the government and opposed the re-election, for a fifth term, of President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s Director for the Middle East and North Africa Programme. “This is an extremely worrying development, indicating that there is likely to be no let-up in the Tunisian government’s repression of dissent.” Slim Boukhdhir, an independent journalist who has previously been jailed for writing articles critical of the government, was stopped in the street and forced into a car last Wednesday evening by five men in plain clothes, all believed to be police or security officials.
Tunisia -
The security forces used excessive force in Gafsa against demonstrators, causing the deaths of two, and arrested and prosecuted at least 200 protesters, including human rights defenders an