The police accused Jalal and his colleagues of a number of charges such as "inflicting damage to the property of others ; carrying white weapons ; refraining from paying for their drinks ; violation of proper morals ; etc." The public attorney ordered their imprisonment and their referral to primary court on the 28th of October 2004.

The Tunisian authorities has repeatedly fabricated public rights cases against political, trade union and human rights activists, so that it can continue to claim that it is not prosecuting citizens for their ideas and activities, thereby targeting the defaming of their reputations and their presentation to Tunisian public as public rights criminals.

We wish to draw the attention that the Tunisian authorities had previously taken Jalal Zoghlami to court accusing him of membership of the group of "Revolutionary Communists". It had also put him in prison in the year 2000 accusing him of attacking a police officer, while in reality he and a number of other militants had been subject to both verbal and physical aggression by the police at the time. Furthermore it had recently accused Jalal, who at the time was doing his postgraduate studies in France, of inflicting damage on the car of one of the employees of the Ministry of Interior. Jalal was tried in absentia for this accusation and was sentenced to four months in prison !!!

The undersigned to this statement :

- Declare the formation of a national committee for the defense of Jalal Zoghlami and his colleagues ;
- Condemn the methods used by the Tunisian authorities against its political opponents ;
- Demand that the Tunisian authorities immediately and unconditionally release Jalal and his colleagues and stop all persecution against them ;
- Demand that the Tunisian authorities prosecute the suspect elements who have attacked them ;
- Support the right of all Tunisian citizens to exercise their basic political rights.

National Committee for the Defense of Jalal El Zoghlami and his Colleagues :