Broadcaster Haythem El Mekki sentenced to a year in prison on appeal
Journalist and columnist Haythem El Mekki said on Wednesday July 15 that the Sfax Court of Appeal had overturned a first-instance dismissal and sentenced him to one year in prison, in a case opened in Sfax in January 2024 after a social-media post about conditions inside the Habib Bourguiba university hospital. He said the prosecution began under Decree-Law 54 but that the conviction was ultimately handed down under Article 86 of the Telecommunications Code, and that this is the second of three proceedings brought against him since 2023. The SNJT journalists' union said it was deeply worried, denounced the systematic use of custodial penal statutes against opinion on matters of public interest instead of the guarantees of press-specific Decree-Law 115, and said it would back a cassation appeal.