Three Tunisian artists—the film-maker Ala Eddine Slim, the photographer Fakhri El-Ghezal, and the artist Atef Maatallah—have been released from prison. They were acquitted by the Tunisian court of appeal late last month after being charged with drug use under a 23-year-old law.
But the international campaign group, Human Rights Watch, says it is concerned about the welfare of two other artists. Adnen Meddeb and Amine Mabrouk were detained under the same law and are still serving a one-year jail sentence.
Eddine Slim, El-Ghezal, and Maatallah were arrested on 19 November at Eddine Slim’s home in the Nabeul suburb of Tunis. Around 15 armed police entered the premises with a search warrant for suspected terrorist activity.
The men were eventually charged with possession of cannabis under law 52, which was imposed in 1992 by the country’s former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who fled Tunisia in 2011 during the Arab Spring uprising. The anti-drug statute carries a one-year sentence and a fine of 1,000 dinars ($600).
Meddeb and Mabrouk were also charged under law 52 in November when police found tobacco leaves on the pair. According to our sister paper Le Journal des Arts, the presiding judge ruled it a drugs-related offence and delivered the mandatory one-year sentence. Amna Guellali, the Tunisia office director of Human Rights Watch, says that the organisation is closely monitoring the situation.
