Magharebia

A Tunis criminal court dismissed the libel case against Omar Mestiri, editor of online Tunisian newspaper Kalima, Reporters without Borders (RSF) announced Monday (September 3rd). Mestiri had been sued by Tunisian lawyer Mohammed Baccar over a September 2006 article condemning a decision allowing Baccar to resume practising law after being disbarred for "fraud and forgery". The charges could have led to Mestiri's imprisonment for up to three years, but Baccar withdrew the case on August 30th, RSF said. The trial had been postponed twice – on August 2nd and August 28th – and had largely been condemned by international press freedom and journalism organisations as arbitrary.