Tunisia: Judge orders detention of 2 journalists on money laundering charges

The Public Prosecution in Tunisia yesterday ordered the imprisonment of two journalists on suspicion of “money laundering”. The pair are already serving a one-year prison sentence after being convicted of “spreading false news”.

Local radio station Mosaique FM said that “the first investigating judge at the Court of First Instance in Tunis issued, on Tuesday, two prison sentences against media figures Burhan Bseis and Mourad Zghidi [pending investigation] on suspicions related to money laundering.” No further details were provided and no statement has been issued by Tunisian authorities.

In May, a Tunisian court sentenced Bseis, presenter of a political programme on IFM radio, and Zghidi, his co-host, to one year in prison each on charges of “spreading false news.”

Authorities arrested them on charges of “using information systems to publish and spread news containing personal data and false information with the aim of defaming others.”

On more than one occasion, local and international human rights organisations have accused the Tunisian authorities of restricting freedom of expression and persecuting journalists, activists and political opponents.

Tunisian President Kais Saied, who won a second five-year presidential term in October, says that the judicial system in his country is independent and that he does not interfere in its work.

However, the opposition accuses him of using the judiciary to prosecute those who reject the exceptional measures he began to take on 25 July 2021, which caused a severe political crisis in the country.

Tunisian forces consider these measures a “coup against the revolution’s constitution and the establishment of absolute individual rule,” while other forces supporting Saied see these measures as “course correction” of the 2011 revolution that overthrew then-President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

READ: Tunisia: judge arrested despite widespread solidarity