Jailed Tunisian blogger and online journalist Zouhair Yahaoui is now in the seventh day of a hunger strike — family and supporters say his state is not good. The 31-year-old founder and editor of the satirical online zine "tunezine.com" has been serving a two-year sentence since June, 2002, charged by the Tunisian authorities with spreading false information.
Yahaoui's fiance and spokesperson Sophie Elwarda says he's suffering from chronic headaches and an abcess in his mouth, and that his condition is fast deteriorating. He's being held in a cell with about 100 other prisoners. After repeated pleas for medical attention, Elwarda says that all he has received is two aspirin. She says that Yahaoui initiated the hunger strike last week to protest the inhumane prison environment, and "because the pain is so bad that he cannot eat anyway."
Elwarda and other supporters from organizations including Amnesty International (AI) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) are protesting his continued detention, saying that he was arrested without just cause, not provided with due process, and tortured by Tunisian law enforcement agents. They are now concerned that the immediate conditions of his imprisonment may cost him his life.
More on his case here at tunezine.com, and at the RSF website (where you'll also find an online petition for Zouhair's release). BBC News link. Discuss
