Brussels, 14/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - The sentencing, in Tunisia, of three European members of the Femen group (see EUROPE 10866), who demonstrated to show solidarity with their Tunisian colleague, Amina, who is threatened with psychiatric internment according to local media reports, is giving rise to some reaction. To this must be added other facts seen as flagrant violation of the freedoms of expression and artistic creation.
Speaking on behalf of the Left (GUE), MEP Marie Christine Vergiat of France criticised the severity of the penalty imposed. By way of comparison, she pointed to the lightness of the sentence handed down to members of the Salafist group, Ansar-al-Sharia, who had incited hatred and murder and had burnt down and pillaged an embassy and its school in September 2012 - for which they had received a two-year suspended jail sentence,. She says: “Whatever one thinks of the methods used by the Femen, the court ruling is gross violation of the freedom of expression and one can but be increasingly concerned at the state of freedoms and rights in Tunisia”. It is simpler, she said, for the Tunisian government and the magistrates that still rule according to the old regime, to “put these activists in prison rather than recognise that women have the right to dispose of their bodies as they feel fit”. She feels the indecency of that decision is out of all proportion to any form of protest that might upset the modesty of our age.
Tunisia, whose prime minister is expected in Brussels in a little over one week, could also be put in the dock due to the arrest of an artist (a rap singer), “Weld el-15”, sentenced to two years in jail for having offended the police in one of his songs - an act described by the Tunisian courts as a “plot”. The singer's defence lawyer has criticised this very harsh judgment which affects freedom of expression. The media also note that the post-revolutionary Tunisia has notched up its first political refugee, who fled to France where he will be given exile status. Ghazi Beji, the refugee in question, published online cartoons, for which, having failed to appear in court, he was sentenced in March 2012 to seven and a half years in prison, without suspension, and to a considerable fine. His aim was to denounce religious fascism and exclusion of others in the name of Islam. (FB/transl.jl)