Farouk Smari

Summary

Farouk Smari is a photojournalist who was practising his profession at a football match between Olympique de Sidi Bouzid and Union Sportive Monastirienne, when he was arrested, all his equipment was seized, and he was accused of photographing security officers and practising photography without legal authorisation.

Personal Information

Name: Farouk Smari

Nationality: Tunisian

Status: Photographer

Incidents of Violation

On 2 February 2023, Farouk was at the Sidi Bouzid stadium practising his profession of photography, as he always did. Farouk holds the position of head of the media office of "Olympique de Sidi Bouzid", and he was photographing everything that happened during the match inside the stadium and around it in order to document it and publish it on the club's official page. The following day, police forces arrested Farouk. According to his brother's testimony to Intersection Association, Farouk was accused of deliberately photographing security officers and practising photography during the match without legal authorisation, even though he is a professional photographer and it was not the first time he had covered football matches. The victim's brother also stated that six police cars came to their home, arrested his brother and seized all his equipment, including computers and cameras. During the investigation, it emerged that some of the photos in which the faces of security officers appeared had been taken at their request, as they were posing facing the camera lens, ready to have their pictures taken. In addition, photographic coverage of matches requires documenting the security presence inside the stadium.

Trials

Farouk was arrested on Friday 3 February 2023 and taken to the police station, and all his equipment was seized. He was accused of taking photographs without legal authorisation, targeting security officers and focusing on their faces when taking pictures. When this proved to be untrue during the investigation, he was released on 6 February 2023, while his equipment remained confiscated pending a court decision on its return.

Human Rights Violations

The arrest of a photojournalist carrying out his work within the framework of the law constitutes a form of ill-treatment and amounts to arbitrary arrest, since Farouk was covering the events of the match with a legal authorisation allowing him to do so, and his photographing of the police presence inside the stadium did not mean he was targeting them, but was solely part of documenting the course of the match. There is no justification for arresting him and seizing his equipment in order to search it, which constitutes a flagrant violation of human rights and an infringement of personal data.

Sources

Intersection Association documented this case after contacting the brother of the victim of the violation and receiving his testimony.