TUNIS, June 05, 2013 (AFP) A Tunis court on Wednesday adjourned the trial of three European activists with the women's topless protest group Femen to June 12, ordering that they remain in detention, their lawyers said. "The trial has been adjourned to June 12. The bail request for the three Femen activists was refused," defence lawyer Souheib Bahri.  The judge must decide at the next hearing on whether to a ...

TUNIS, June 05, 2013 (AFP) Amina Sboui, the young Tunisian arrested for an anti-Islamist protest, has become a symbol of resistance to religious intolerance for Western feminists, but opinion at home is divided over the activist inspired by topless protest group Femen. Under the pseudonym Amina Tyler, she sparked a scandal in March by posting topless pictures of herself on Facebook, defying Arab-Muslim conv ...

TUNIS, June 05, 2013 (AFP) Three European women went on trial in Tunis on Wednesday for holding a topless anti-Islamist protest, and their French lawyer said he was confident about the outcome, despite the risk of jail sentences. Pauline Hillier and Marguerite Stern from France and Josephine Markmann from Germany arrived in court around 0930 GMT wearing the traditional Tunisian veil, or safsari. A few dozen ...

TUNIS, May 31, 2013 (AFP) Three European women with radical activist group Femen, who were arrested after baring their breasts in Tunis, will be tried next week for public indecency, which carries a possible prison sentence, their lawyer said on Friday. "They will appear in court in Tunis on June 5... The trial will be an open hearing," Souheib Bahri told AFP, information confirmed by French consular offici ...

by Kaouther LARBI KAIROUAN, Tunisia, May 30, 2013 (AFP) A Tunisian activist with the women's topless protest group Femen went on trial Thursday for illegal possession of pepper spray, a day after three Europeans bared their breasts in the capital Tunis. Femen said the young women arrested Wednesday outside the central courthouse, two French and one German, would at midday appear before the public prosecutor ...

TUNIS, May 29, 2013 (AFP) Three young European women with topless protest group Femen were arrested on Wednesday after baring their breasts in central Tunis, a first in the Arab world, an AFP journalist reported. Standing outside the main courthouse, the women, two French and the other German, shouted: "Free Amina," in support of  a young Tunisian woman detained while protesting against hardline Islamists a ...

TUNIS, May 28, 2013 (AFP) Clashes broke out on Tuesday between Tunisian street vendors and police who fired tear gas to disperse them in the northern town of Bizerte, interior ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui said. Furious at the regional governor's decision to ban their mobile stalls in the town centre, the street vendors attacked the police, hurling rocks and petrol bombs, and the police fired tear ga ...

TUNIS, May 20, 2013 (AFP) Tunisia's Prime Minister Ali Larayedh vowed firm action against Ansar Al-Sharia, in remarks published Monday, after bloody clashes between police and members of the radical group. But the group's fugitive leader Abu Iyadh insisted, in a message posted online, that his followers could not be defeated despite their "persecution." Tunisia has been rocked by waves of violence blamed on ...

TUNIS, May 19, 2013 (AFP) A protester was hit by gunfire and killed on Sunday in the Tunisian capital during clashes between police and hardline Islamists, a hospital official said. Mounira Ben Ghazi, a senior supervisor at Mongi Slim hospital, named the dead man as Moez Dahmani, in comments made to Express-FM radio station. Dahmani, who was born in 1986, died of gunshot wounds, Ben Ghazi said. An interior ...

TUNIS, May 19, 2013 (AFP) Clashes between police and Salafist protesters in a Tunis suburb on Sunday injured at least 14 people, including 11 policemen, the interior ministry said in a statement, AFP reported. "During the protests, 11 members of the security forces were wounded, one of them seriously, and three protesters were also wounded," it said, adding that one Islamist protester was also in serious co ...

 TUNIS, May 15, 2013 (AFP) The Tunisian government has decided to ban the congress of hardline Salafist group Ansar al-Sharia due to take place at the end of this week, the ruling Islamist party's leader said on Wednesday. "The government has decided to prohibit this congress whose organisers have not obtained prior permission from the authorities as required by law," Ennahda party chief Rached Ghannouchi t ...

TUNIS, May 13, 2013 (AFP) The head of a radical Salafist group in Tunisia has threatened to wage war against the government, led by moderate Islamist party Ennahda, accusing it in a message posted online of un-Islamic policies. "To the tyrants who think they are Islamists... know that the stupid things you are doing are dragging you to war," said Abu Iyadh, the fugitive leader of Ansar al-Sharia who is want ...