Lawyer and activist Abdennaceur Aouini given a year in prison on appeal
Business News reports that the appeal chamber of the Tunis Court of First Instance sentenced lawyer and political activist Abdennaceur Aouini to one year in prison over an old dispute with a fellow lawyer, Hamadi Baccar; people close to him say the complainant had withdrawn the complaint during the proceedings and that the first instance had dismissed the case. The defence committee for Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi, of which Aouini is a member, calls the ruling political retaliation for his criticism of how the judiciary works, citing his remarks at the bar's consultative general assembly on May 1 and his part in the regional lawyers' strike in Tunis on May 19. Accounts differ on the date and the court: Business News dates the ruling to July 16 before the first-instance appeal chamber, while the defence committee dates it to July 15 before the correctional chamber of the Tunis Court of Appeal.