February 18, 2012
TUNIS (AFP) - Journalists lashed out at Tunisian authorities Friday for jailing the editor of a newspaper that published a photo of star Real Madrid midfielder Sami Khedira embracing his naked model girlfriend.
Three journalists for newspaper Etounsia were arrested for indecency on Wednesday and held for questioning by a judge. The paper's editor, Nasreddine Ben Saida, is still in detention.
In the photograph, originally published in Germany's edition of GQ, German-Tunisian footballer Sami Khedira hugs his model girlfriend Lena Gercke, while concealing her breasts with his arms.
The arrests were "political and aimed at repressing freedom of the press and journalists," several unions representing journalists said in a joint statement.
The unions said the decision to detain Saida was shocking especially since this was the first such arrest since independence from France, the unions said.
The statement called the detention illegal and asked for the editor's immediate release.
Justice Minister Nourredine Bhiri defended the arrest and urged the media "to stop harassing magistrates in an attempt to sway their decisions".
"No one is above the law in Tunisia, which is a real state of laws since the revolution of January 14," the minister said.
