Front Line is saddened by reports of the death of Tunisian human rights defender Zouheir Yahyaoui, who died on 13th March 2005 following a heart attack. Zouheir Yahyaoui died at the age of 36, having formerly spent 18 months in prison, during which time he was tortured and detained in degrading conditions. As a result of these conditions, Zouheir Yahyaoui underwent 3 hunger strikes to protest against his imprisonment. In his capacity as a human rights defender Zouheir Yahyaoui ran a website known as ‘Tunezine’ www.tunezine.com which is censored in Tunisia as a result of its reporting of human rights abuses and its provision of forums for open discussion. Zouhair Yahyaoui was sentenced to 2 years in prison on 20 June 2002 following his publication of a letter that his uncle, the judge Mokthar Yahyaoui, had sent to the president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, denouncing the functioning of the legal-justice system in Tunisia. Zouhair Yahyaoui was granted a conditional release in November 2003. In June 2003 he was awarded the ‘CyberLiberty’ award by the Reporters Sans Frontières, who commended his ‘contribution to the freedom of information on the internet’. 
