Tunisian blogger and former political prisoner Abdallah Zouari [1] has been arrested [2] yesterday, 15 September 2009 by plainclothes agents in the southern city of Zarzis.
During the 8 hours of arrest, blogger Abdallah Zouari [1] was asked to disclose the passwords of his email accounts and interrogated about his most recent report [3] published the day before on the banned Tunisnews [4] website.
Mr Zouari was questioned about Human rights group's members who have visited him during the last seven years and his interviews with the media. Mr Zouari was warned to stop making any statement that could tarnish the image of Tunisia, or face a smear campaign they can run against him by disseminating fake pornographic video for the purpose of sullying his reputation.
Since his release in 2002, after spending 11 years in jail, Mr Zouari is still being confined to an internal exile in a rural district, 500 kilometers from his family's home in Tunis, despite a court order issued on August 2nd, 2009 [5] that ended the seven years of house arrest.
Mr Zouari is placed under round-the-clock police surveillance, prevented from accessing the Internet and prohibited from using local Internet cafés [6]. He has been arrested several times for protesting the banishment and mistreatment and for communicating with the outside world through the Internet.
Abdallah Zouari is blogging at Citizen Zouari [1]. His blog is among tens of other critical blogs [7] that are blocked in Tunisia.