UPDATE 3-Tunisia arrests TV channel owner for "treason"

Sun Jan 23, 2011 8:09pm GMT

[-] Text [+]

* Larbi Nasra related to Ben Ali's wife

* Hannibal TV broadcasts severed

* Move seen as worrying development by some observers

(Adds station back on air after minister intervenes, para 12)

By Andrew Hammond

TUNIS, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Tunisia has arrested the owner of a private TV station and his son for "treason" for inciting violence and working for ousted leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali's return, the state news agency said on Sunday.

"The owner of Hannibal TV (Larbi Nasra), who is a relative of the former president's wife, is using the channel to abort the youth's revolution, spread confusion, incite strife and broadcast false information," a statement citing an authorised source said.

"The aim is to create a constitutional vacuum, ruin stability and take the country into a vortex of violence that will bring back the dictatorship of the former president."

Veteran strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was overthrown this month in a popular uprising over poverty, corruption and political repression that stunned Arab and Western governments who had long backed Ben Ali as a bulwark against Islamists. Continued...

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