What is all the fuss about ?
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| Africa North |
| European Topless Protesters Could Face Tunisia Jail Terms |
| 2013-06-01 |
[An Nahar] Three European women with radical activist group Femen, who were placed in durance vileDrop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! after baring their breasts in Tunis, will be tried next week for public indecency and could be nabbed Please don't kill me! , their lawyer said Friday. "They will appear in court in Tunis on June 5... The trial will be an open hearing," Souheib Bahri told Agence La Belle France Presse, information confirmed by French consular officials in Tunis. They will be tried for "public indecency" and an "attack on public morals", crimes both punishable by six months in jail in socially conservative Tunisia, where the coalition government is headed by an Islamist party. They risk another 15 days in detention for offences against the Tunisian authorities. The three young women were identified by the Femen movement in Gay Paree as Pauline Hillier and Marguerite Stern, both French, and Josephine Markmann from Germany. They were arrested on Wednesday as they staged a topless protest outside the central courthouse in Tunis, the first such protest organised by radical feminist group in the Arab world. Their demonstration was held to demand the release of Amina Sboui, an 18-year-old Tunisian activist with their group who was locked away Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! earlier this month after protesting against Tunisia's main Salafist group and allegedly painting the word "Femen" on a wall near a cemetery in Kairouan. The hardline Salafists ...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them... had planned to hold their annual congress in the historic city south of Tunis, which is considered the country's religious capital, despite a government ban. Sboui, better known by her pseudonym Tyler, went on trial on Wednesday for illegal possession of pepper spray -- for which she received a fine -- amid tensions outside the court, where dozens of angry Islamists demonstrated against the topless protests. The judge ordered that she be remanded in jug, to face separate charges next week of indecency and desecrating a cemetery, crimes punishable respectively by six months and two years in jail. But he also left the door open for heavier sentences, referring to the "criminal conspiracy" section of the penal code and indicating that Sboui could be accused of acting as part of an organised gang. "Accusing her of belonging to a criminal organization is also extremely worrying, since under (ousted president Zine El Abidine) Ben Ali such charges were used to crack down on peaceful political opponents," the rights group added. Sboui sparked a scandal in March -- and also a wave of international support -- after posting topless pictures of herself on Facebook, drawing threats from Tunisia's radical Islamists. Her mother, whom the young woman accused of holding her in captivity, later said her daughter suffers from chronic depression. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 Many volunteers for the lineup? |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2013-06-01 23:22 |
| #3 Amnesty International on Friday called for Sboui to be released immediately, saying she was being investigated for exercising her right to freedom of expression Apparently 'respecting other cultures' is optional. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2013-06-01 14:55 |
| #2 De-Boob them, let them show the scars. (They won't) |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2013-06-01 13:23 |
| #1 Sboui sparked a scandal in March -- and also a wave of international support -- after posting topless pictures of herself on Facebook, drawing threats from Tunisia's radical Islamists. What is all the fuss about ? |
| Posted by: Slereter Crereper7674 2013-06-01 13:15 |