"The 20 men, aged 18-22 and most of them high-school students, were arrested on February 5-9 in Zarzis for entering banned Internet Web Sites," said the Tunisian Human Rights League, the country's only legal independent rights group...
Rights groups say the government has set up a cyber-police special force to track down dissident activity on the Internet.
The unauthorized International Association for Support of Political Prisoners said Tuesday police were interrogating the men still and refusing family visits.
Lawyers, who asked not to be named, said authorities were worried the 20 could belong to nascent radical Islamist cells.
They said the arrested men browsed sites including one from the banned Tunisian Islamist Nahda party.
Tunisia has been increasingly policing its citizens' internet usage, setting up a cyberpoliceforce, and competing with China for world leadership in net crackdowns. In 2002, the government arrested a journalist for Webbing false information.
(via BNA.com) :: posted by Bryan, 12:39 PM |



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