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TUNIS, April 19, 2012 (AFP)
The trial of a television station director accused of insulting sacred values for having screened the Franco-Iranian film “Persepolis” resumed Thursday in Tunisia under tight security.
The entrance to the Tunis courts was guarded and police were screening anyone trying to get into the chamber where the trial of Nabil Karoui, the head of Nessma television, was to take place.
The station broadcast the award-winning animated film “Persepolis”, which tells the story of the Iranian revolution and its aftermath through the eyes of a young girl, on October 7 last year.
But it sparked outrage because scenes depicted God, whose representation is banned in Islam.
Within two days of the film being shown, Islamic militants attacked the television station’s offices and Karoui’s own home during violent demonstrations in Tunis.
The trial opened in November 16 and has twice been adjourned.
Although Karoui has apologised for causing any offence, the case has become a cause celebre, a battleground between Islamist militants and secular, liberal elements protesting what they say is the rise of religious extremism.
A defence committee has been set up to provide support for Karoui and an earlier court hearing in January was disrupted as the defendant denounced what he called a political trial and the court descended into uproar.
As the trial resumed Thursday, Nessma television complained that it had been deprived of its right to operate freely and denounced what it said was an attempt to silence it.
French lawyers were attending the court hearing and France’s International Federation of Human Rights has sent an observer.
