Chokri Ben Marzouk
Summary
Chokri Ben Marzouk is a Tunisian citizen who shared on his personal page a report that the Minister of the Interior was preoccupied with his new marriage. He was arrested last December and accused of spreading false news.
Personal Information
Name: Chokri Ben Marzouk
Nationality: Tunisian
Status: Tunisian citizen
Incidents of Violation
Chokri Ben Marzouk shared news of the marriage of the current Minister of the Interior, "Taoufik Charfeddine", and of his travel to Germany, presenting it as an explanation for his absence from public view in recent months, and he posted this news on his personal Facebook page. As a result, Chokri was arrested in December 2022. According to the testimony of his lawyer to Intersection Association, Chokri was arrested on the accusation of deliberately using information and communication networks and systems to spread rumours falsely attributed to others with the aim of infringing the rights of others or harming public security or national defence, under Article 24 of Decree-Law No. 54 of 2022 of 13 September 2022 on combating offences relating to information and communication systems. Chokri was committed to prison and then questioned about what he had published on his personal page, and was kept in prison until 23 January 2023, when the court decided to accept the release request submitted by his lawyer and to leave him at liberty while continuing to examine his case.
Trials
Chokri was arrested in December 2022 under Article 24 of Decree-Law No. 54 and kept in prison; the judiciary then decided to leave him at liberty while continuing to examine the case.
Human Rights Violations
What citizen Chokri Ben Marzouk posted on his personal page is an exercise of his right to freedom of expression. Moreover, the subject he wrote about is a matter of public concern and is not a serious matter threatening State security that would require his trial and the imposition of a sentence of up to ten years in prison. Such trials targeting activists and other Tunisian citizens because of their statements in the media or their social media posts and the opinions they express on issues of public concern are repressive practices aimed at violating freedom of opinion and expression. This is in addition to what Decree-Law No. 54 represents in terms of suppressing freedom of expression and intimidating Tunisians in order to silence them and deter them from engaging in issues of public concern and criticising State institutions. Prosecuting people for their opinions is a clear violation of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which provides that "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." This is not to mention the many violations contained in Decree-Law No. 54, which imposes unjust prison sentences and fines for a wide range of offences that the decree-law defines in a vague and overbroad manner.
Sources
Intersection Association documented this case after contacting the lawyer of the victim of the violation, Chokri Ben Marzouk, and receiving her testimony on the course of the case.