Cairo September 29, 2012

ANHRI condemns shutting down the website of the “Tunisian Judges Association” and its page on “Facebook” on Monday September 23, 2012 due to the rejection of the association to the judicial movements.

The authorities shut down the official website due to the seminar held on September 21, 2012 in “Skrah”, in which the association expressed its non-satisfaction of the decisions made by the minister of Justice in the frame of the movements of 2012. The movements included several number of bin Ali’s regime which considered to be the reproduction of the ousted regime, that linked giving the jobs on the basis of loyalty and targeted the independent judges, which means more control on the judiciary system.

It is worthy to be noted that this is not the first time that the Tunisian authorities block the pages of the association on the Internet. The Tunisian authorities previously blocked the first page of the association on “Facebook” on September 13, 2012.

ANHRI said “the block of the website deemed to be continuity to the serious back drop of freedoms in the country since a while. The most significant phenomena of the serious back-drop represented in the prosecution campaign which included 6 journalists of “Dar-El-Sabah” nothing but express their opinions and call for the reformations in the country”.

ANHRI called the Tunisian authorities to immediately unblock the website and to respect the freedom of opinion and expression in the country.