PROMINENT Tunisian human rights lawyer Nejib Hosni, renowned for defending Muslim fundamentalist activists, was freed under a presidential pardon on Saturday. He was jailed on December 21 to serve a two-week sentence for the unlawful practice of his profession even though he is registered by the Tunisian bar association. As the sentence ran out on January 6, Hosni was told that he should serve out the remainder of an eight-year term to which he was sentenced in January 1996 for counterfeiting documents. “I hope that my pardon will be followed by a general amnesty for all the defenders of human rights in Tunisia,” said Hosni. In November 1996, Hosni was acquitted in a trial blaming him for Islamic extremism. The same year he won awards from the American Bar Association and the Human Rights Institute of the Bar of Bordeaux, in France. Tunisian President Ben-Ali recently said he had “with confidence and conviction chosen the road of establishing human rights”.