(ANSAmed) - TUNIS, MAY 3 - Nabil Karoui, the head of Nessma TV,
has been fined 2,400 euros (a little over 1,200 euros) at the
end of a court case in Tunis. Karoui was on trial for screening
the film Persepolis, which is considered blasphemous, in the
days leading up to elections for the Tunisian Constituent
Assembly.
The ruling was handed down this morning by the court of first instance in Tunis, where Karoui appeared after a charge from 140 lawyers, who said that the film was blasphemous and an attack on the "good customs" of Tunisians.
During previous hearings, the trial had taken place amid great tension, particularly outside the court where clashes took place between hardliners (including the lawyers, who believe that Karoui should have faced the death penalty for violating the principles of Islam) and defenders of freedom of expression and of the press. In the document accusing Karoui, signatories spoke of an "attack on holy customs and virtues", after the screening of the animated film by the Iranian director Marjane Satrapi, in which, albeit for only a few seconds, Allah is represented in human form, which is strictly forbidden by Islam.
Following the screening of the film, which was especially dubbed into Tunisian dialect, the country was the setting for numerous protests and Karoui's Tunis home was attacked by Salafists, who started a fire from which the television chief's wife and children miraculously managed to escape . (ANSAmed).
The ruling was handed down this morning by the court of first instance in Tunis, where Karoui appeared after a charge from 140 lawyers, who said that the film was blasphemous and an attack on the "good customs" of Tunisians.
During previous hearings, the trial had taken place amid great tension, particularly outside the court where clashes took place between hardliners (including the lawyers, who believe that Karoui should have faced the death penalty for violating the principles of Islam) and defenders of freedom of expression and of the press. In the document accusing Karoui, signatories spoke of an "attack on holy customs and virtues", after the screening of the animated film by the Iranian director Marjane Satrapi, in which, albeit for only a few seconds, Allah is represented in human form, which is strictly forbidden by Islam.
Following the screening of the film, which was especially dubbed into Tunisian dialect, the country was the setting for numerous protests and Karoui's Tunis home was attacked by Salafists, who started a fire from which the television chief's wife and children miraculously managed to escape . (ANSAmed).
