Tunisia: 50 young people convicted of terrorist activities

Fifty young Tunisians were sentenced of between fifteen-month suspended to seven years' imprisonment for terrorist activities, according to their lawyer.

•     Charged with membership in a Salafist group for jihad, defendants aged between 20 and 30 were convicted Saturday by the Court of Appeal of Tunis under the Terrorism Act.
  
      They were also accused of unlawful assemblies and silent information on terrorist acts in preparation, said lawyer Samir Ben Amor.
  
      The group, from Tunis and Bizerte (north), were arrested between 2007 and 2008 and tried at first instance under the Terrorism Act.
  
      Ben Amor has estimated more than a thousand the number of Tunisians detained on charges punishable by the law adopted in 2003 and criticized by advocates of human rights.
  
     In December and January 2007, Tunisia had neutralized a Salafist group allegedly linked to the Algerian Salafist Group for preaching and Combat (GSPC), in clashes that have killed 14 near Tunis.
  
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.