Trial of Ayoub Messaoudi is unfair

"The trial of Ayoub Messaoudi is unfair because the civil defendant was brought before the military court," Radhia Nasraoui, human rights activist and member of the Defence Committee of Ayoub Messaoudi, former media adviser of the Caretaker President of the Republic said Saturday. "The defence said during the hearing that the military justice is not neutral because the plaintiff is appointed by the Ministry of Defence and the Chief of Staff of Armed Forces. The military is therefore judge and jury," she told TAP. The Permanent Military Court of Tunis, Friday, gave Ayoub Messaoudi a four-month suspended sentence and ordered him to pay a symbolic dinar. The court also lifted the travel ban issued against him. Messaoudi was accused of "outrage upon the dignity, reputation and morale of the army" and of "imputing illegal acts to a public officer without evidence of their truth," following his statements to a private Tunisian television channel on the extradition of former Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmoudi.