Tunisia: Sentencing of Former MP and Another Individual

The Tunisian judiciary has sentenced former MP Maher Zaid to one and a half years in prison, and former spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior, Mohamed Ali Al-Aaroui, to one year in prison, with immediate enforcement of the sentences. Mohamed Zeitouna, the official spokesperson for the Tunis Court of First Instance, stated in a remark to "Mosaïque" radio that employees from a certain ministry filed a complaint against the two accused, asserting that "Maher Zaid deliberately exploited his position as a presenter on a radio station to publish information he attributed to the complainant without verifying its accuracy, resulting in damage to the complainant's reputation in the public eye." Zeitouna added that it was confirmed that such information had been published and presented to Maher Zaid, the second sentenced accused, when he was serving as the spokesperson for one of the ministries, referring to the former spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior, Mohamed Ali Al-Aaroui. Zeitouna confirmed that the misdemeanor court in Tunis sentenced Maher Zaid to one year in prison for attributing false information to a public employee and six months for public defamation, with immediate enforcement. He noted that the accused Mohamed Ali Al-Aaroui was sentenced to six months for attributing false information to a public employee related to his job and a similar sentence for public defamation, also with immediate enforcement.