Tunisian rights activist release delayed

Reports from Tunisia say the authorities have held up the release of the prominent human rights lawyer, Najib Hosni, after he ended a fifteen-day jail sentence.

The French news agency quoted his wife , Thuraya, as saying she was told that he now has to serve another five years behind bars.

This would complete an eight-year sentence that Mr Hosni began in 1996.

He served more than two years of that sentence before reportedly being released on humanitarian grounds, but was barred from practising law.

His fifteen-day sentence was for unlawful practice of his profession.

The Tunisian human rights organisation, the National Council for Civil Liberties, which is not officially recognised, has denounced Mr Hosni's continued detention, describing it as arbitrary. Last week, a leading member of the Council, Moncef Marzouki, was sentenced to one year in jail for running an outlawed organisation.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service