Tunisia detains journalist sentenced to 5 years in prison in absentia

Tunisian security forces yesterday arrested journalist Khalifa Guesmi who was sentenced to five years prison in May, Anadolu news agency reported.

Mosaique FM, a privately owned Tunisian radio station, said a security squad arrested its reporter, Guesmi, in the central state of Kairouan. Tunisian authorities have released no official statement.

Guesmi was sentenced to one year in prison by a lower court. However, in May the Tunis appeals court upheld the conviction and increased the sentence to five years.

He was convicted of intentionally sharing sensitive security information in an article about counterterrorism arrests in the Kairouan region where he is based, and then refusing to reveal his sources.