Tunisian courts sentenced government critic Taoufik Ben Brik to six months in prison on Thursday for assaulting a woman in public, on charges that have been widely derided by free press and human rights group as baseless and politicized.

Ben Brik was arrested on 29 October 2009 after a woman filed a complaint following a traffic argument between them, local sources told IPI. Ben Brik was accused of assaulting the woman and damaging her car in front of two witnesses, according to AFP.

His arrest came only days after President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali won a fifth presidential term with nearly 90% of the vote in elections that were widely alleged to have been rigged.

The 49 year-old journalist reportedly suffers from a medical condition that requires constant medication. After his arrest, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he was disappointed and urged that Ben Brik be released for medical treatment, according to news reports.

This is not the first time that Ben Brik, who writes for several French publications, has been arrested and detained, and he and his family have been harassed over his writings in the past.

In 2008, a car belonging to Ben Brik’s wife was reportedly vandalized. Ten days earlier, the journalist had received phone calls threatening to “take care of” his wife and children if he didn’t “behave” during the upcoming elections, the Tunis-based Observatory for Freedom of the Press (OLPEC) reported. All four of the journalist’s four brothers have been prosecuted by police, and two sentenced to prison time in recent years.

“The charges against Taoufik Ben Brik appear to be both punitive and without foundation,” said IPI Director David Dadge. “Ben Brik is facing persecution and harassment by the Tunisian government for merely practising his profession.  The Tunisian government must understand that journalists have a right to work free of threats and intimidation and it is time that the authorities set aside their undue sensitivity towards criticism and accept that it is a crucial element of any democracy. By treating Ben Brik in this way the Tunisian authorities are sending the signal to the international community that they care little for freedom of the press.”

Tunisian journalists now face more threats than ever before.  Reporters are kept under constant surveillance, and are routinely prevented from travelling outside the country.  Recently, journalists considered a threat by the government have also been prevented from visiting one another, reports say.

Journalists have also faced brutal acts of intimidation. Last week, Radio Kalima director Omar Mestiri was kidnapped by unknown assailants and dropped off again later in the day. Last month, IPI protested the abduction and beating of freelance journalist Slim Boukhdir, who was stripped and left in a Tunis park.

“Criticizing Ben Ali or his family is the most dangerous thing you can do in Tunisia,” Naziha Rjiba, vice president of OLPEC and an editor of the online magazine Kalima, told IPI in an earlier interview.