Borhen Bssais and Mourad Zeghidi sentenced to 12 months in prison (statement)

Tunis: The Tunis Court of First Instance sentenced TV and radio presenter Borhen Bssais and political commentator Mourad Zeghidi to 12 months in prison each in two separate cases, court spokesperson Mohamed Zitouna told TAP on Wednesday evening.A first six-month sentence was imposed for "intentionally using information and communication networks and systems to produce, disseminate, broadcast, transmit and prepare false news and rumours with the aim of violating the rights of others and harming public security."The second six-month sentence for Bssais and Zeghidi is "for using information systems and disseminating news containing untruths with the aim of defaming others and causing them material and moral harm," the same source added.Bssais and Zeghidi were arrested on May 11 and their detention was extended for a further 48 hours before the Public Prosecutor issued committal orders against them on May 15 and scheduled a hearing for Wednesday to consider their cases.Spokesperson Zitouna had previously told TAP that Zeghidi and Bssais were suspected of "using information systems to disseminate and spread news containing personal data and untrue facts with the aim of defaming others and harming their reputation, as stipulated in Article 24 of Decree No. 54 of 2022".Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse