The Tunisian judiciary issued a ruling to imprison former MP Maher Zeid for one and a half years, and to imprison the former official spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, Muhammad Ali Al-Aroui, for one year, with permission for immediate implementation.

Mohamed Zaitouneh, the official spokesman for the Tunisian Court of First Instance, said in a statement to Radio Mosaique that employees of one of the ministries filed a complaint against the defendants stating that “Maher Zaid deliberately took advantage of his position as a presenter of programs on a radio station and published data attributed to the complainant without verifying its authenticity, which led to To tarnish his reputation before public opinion.”

Mohamed Zaitouneh added that it was confirmed that he published these data and presented them to Maher Zaid, the second convict, when he was working as an official spokesman for one of the ministries, referring to the former official spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, Mohamed Ali Al-Arawi. 

Zitouneh confirmed that the Chamber of the Tunisian Court of First Instance sentenced Maher Zaid to one year in prison for attributing untrue matters to a public employee, and 6 months for public slander, with immediate effect.

He stated that the accused, Muhammad Ali Al-Arawi, was imprisoned for a period of 6 months for attributing incorrect matters to a public employee related to his job, and similarly for public slander, with immediate effect.