[Al Ahram] Tunisia's Court of Cassation on Wednesday ordered the release of TV owner Sami Fehri, incarceratedDrop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
in August in a move NGOs denounced as an attempt by the authorities to silence their critics, his lawyer said.
"He will be freed in the coming hours. The judgement has just been given and we are waiting for the information to be relayed to the civil prison in Mornaguia," near Tunis, Sonia Dahmani told AFP.
"We still don't have the details of the judgement, but we can imagine why the court (decided to free him), it was such a violation of his rights," she added.
Fehri gave himself up to the authorities after being charged with "illegal use of Tunisian state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
resources" during the rule of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, at the risk of being placed in durance vile
You have the right to remain silent...
for ten years.
His TV channel Ettounsiya had aired a controversial satirical programme critical of the government.
Fehri's lawyers asked the court to revoke his provisional detention due to serious procedural flaws.
They say the authorities put pressure on the judiciary to imprison him.
"The judges have decided they will no longer put up with the interferences (of the government), so now we have a decision in accordance with the law," Dahmani said after Wednesday's ruling.
Fehri, who founded Ettounsiya in March 2011, two months after the revolution swept Ben Ali from power, had been involved with a production company belonging to Belhassen Trabelsi, the former president's brother-in-law.
His detention in August caused uproar, notably because it came just days after he announced having pulled the satirical show Guignols ('puppets' in French) under pressure from the Islamist party Ennahda, which heads the coalition government.
The widow of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has denied Arab press reports that she had married a brother-in-law of Tunisian president