Tunisia orders journalist Mohamed Yousfi into pretrial detention amid health crisis in court
An investigating judge at Tunis's Economic and Financial Judicial Pole ordered journalist Mohamed Yousfi into pretrial detention on Tuesday. Yousfi, editor-in-chief of Al Katiba, was detained on September 4 outside Express FM's studios. His defense said the judge acted before questioning was finished and before his lawyers had completed their pleading. During the hearing his condition worsened sharply, the SNJT journalists' union said, and Civil Protection medics treated him on site. The SNJT declared what it called a press emergency, and colleagues held a protest outside the courthouse, repeating the union's demand for his release and calling the illicit enrichment and money laundering investigation a pretext targeting his journalism. Yousfi had emergency appendix surgery in custody earlier in the case.