5/10/2017 Tunisia: Spate of Prosecutions for Free Speech | Human Rights Watch his arrest is based on confessions he signed, Help us continue to ght human rights abuses. Please give now to support our work » acknowledging that he knew about the eggthrowing attack and he was accomplice in it. I said that this was not true and showed on camera Mehrezi’s interrogation statement mentioning that he refused to sign the statement. I also said that this indicates the prosecution is using false evidence to detain him.   × Al-Heni said that Chkioua, the public prosecutor, filed a complaint before the public prosecutor’s office of the Tunis Appeals Court, which then charged al-Heni with accusing a public agent, without proof, of violating the law. “What grave danger to the country are Tunisian law enforcement authorities trying to prevent by prosecuting the cameraman who filmed an egg-thrower, and the journalist who criticized his arrest?” Stork said. Since early 2012, judicial authorities have prosecuted numerous journalists, bloggers, artists, and intellectuals for peaceful expression under penal code provisions on “defamation,” “offenses against state agents,” and “harming public order,”all of which can result in prison terms. The penal articles formed part of the repressive legal arsenal employed by the Ben Ali government to punish dissidents and silence human rights activists, Human Rights Watch said. The Constituent Assembly has made no attempt to abolish or suspend these laws, nor have any courts ruled them inconsistent with human rights standards. In September 2012, for example, a public prosecutor charged two sculptors over artwork the prosecutor deemed harmful to public order and good morals. On March 28, 2012, the First Instance Criminal Tribunal of Mahdia sentenced two bloggers to prison terms of seven-and-a-half years, confirmed on appeal, for writings https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/09/13/tunisia-spate-prosecutions-free-speech 4/9