TUNIS: Tunisia’s public prosecutor yesterday ordered police to investigate an attack on 19 actors by Salafist Muslims, while they decided whether to charge the artists with alleged “indecency”, a lawyer for the drama group said.
“The public prosecutor decided ...to allow the investigation to progress so that police officers could hear the artists’ statements as victims,” their lawyer Ghazi Mrabet said. The actors had been due to appear before the public prosecutor yesterday, and were expected to be charged with indecency.
Mrabet added that the prosecutor had not yet decided whether or not to press charges against the members of the theatre troupe. “The artists should receive a summons from the police now,” he said.
The group was putting on a performance in the western town of Kef in a small theatre and in the street when ultra-conservative Salafists attacked them.
Supporters of the actors said police had not bothered the Salafists, while they arrested the artists and asked for them to be prosecuted for indecent behaviour, a charge that carries a sentence of up to six months in prison. Police have not made their statements available to the actors’ defence lawyers, so the exact nature of what they are accused of remains unclear. AFP
