AFP

The military court in Tunisia sentenced journalist Saleh Attia to three months in prison after convicting him of charges, most notably "disparaging the army and harming its dignity or reputation", according to his lawyer. Lawyer Samir Dilo said in a Facebook post that the ruling issued on Tuesday evening also came against the background of two other charges: “attributing illegal matters to a public official without providing proof of this,” and “offending others through the public telecommunications network.” Dilo explained in his post on Tuesday night that 12 lawyers pleaded in defense of Saleh Attia. The Military Prosecution had opened an investigation and arrested Attia al-Amel in a local daily newspaper on June 11, the day after he made statements about the army to the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera. In his statements, the journalist said that President Kais Saied "officially asked the military force to intervene against the powerful Tunisian General Labor Union" and to encircle its headquarters before a public sector strike on June 16. And Attia, who opposes the measures taken by Said on July 25, 2021, most notably the freezing of parliament and the dismissal of the prime minister, added that "the (military) establishment rejected this and informed the Tunisian General Labor Union of this information." In his statements, he likened the current situation in Tunisia to the "last days" of the regime of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. In a statement, the Tunisian General Labor Union denied what it considered "false statements" to the journalist. For its part, Amnesty International on Tuesday called on the Tunisian authorities to "immediately drop all charges against detained journalist Saleh Attia." The human rights organization added in a statement that Attia "is among the latest in a series of prominent critics, political opponents, and perceived enemies of the president who have been targeted by the authorities with investigation, prosecution, arbitrary travel bans, or detention" since the president's monopoly of all executive and legislative powers in 2021.