Tunisia journalist sentenced to 6 months in prison for insulting an official

Tunisian flag raised up at Belvedere Park in Tunis on 20 March, 2017 [Amine Landoulsi/Anadolu Agency]

A Tunisian journalist and political commentator has been imprisoned to six months after he criticised the government, AP reports.

According to the report, Mohamed Boughalleb, who had been charged with insulting a public official, was sentenced Wednesday.

The official alleged he was harmed by Boughalleb’s commentary linking him to corruption and misuse of public funds, the report says.

The report added that the complaint from a member of Tunisia’s Ministry of Religious Affairs came after Boughalleb, on Facebook, questioned trips abroad that the civil servant made with the minister and called them a “waste of public funds”.

Lawyers for Boughalleb, 60, denounced the sentence as “an assault on freedom of expression”, it says.

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