2010: Tunisia: Fahem Boukaddous
16. October 2010
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
President
Palais Présidentiel
Tunis, Tunisia
Lazhar Bououni
Ministry of Justice and Human Rights
31 Boulevard Bab Benat
1006 Tunis – La Kasbah
Tunisia
Boukaddous seriously ill; Tunisian PEN member facing prison sentence
International PEN’s Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) is seriously concerned about the health of Fahem Boukaddous, correspondent for Al-Badeel news website and TV journalist, who is serving a four-year prison sentence for his reports on social protests. Since his imprisonment in July, Boukaddous has been suffering from increasingly frequent and debilitating asthma attacks and remains in urgent need of medical treatment not available to him in prison. He has been on hunger strike since 8 October. Meanwhile, journalist and internet writer Mouldi Zaouabi, who works for the online magazine Kalima and Radio Kalima, is reportedly facing up to two years in prison on trumped-up assault charges. Zouabi is a founding member of the Tunisian PEN Centre. The WiPC calls on the Tunisian authorities to release Boukaddous immediately and unconditionally and to ensure that he receives the medical care he requires. It also calls for the charges against Zouabi to be dropped.
Yours sincerely
Annaguli Yildam,
Member of Norwegian PEN, WiPC
