Tunisia Comedian, TV Host on Trial for Offending President

A popular Tunisian comedian, a television host and a colleague went on trial Wednesday in a case in which one them allegedly impersonated the president in a telephone conversation with a businessman.

Defense attorney Mounir Ben Salha asked the court to dismiss the case and to free satirist Migalo, whose real name is Wassim Lahrissi, television host Moez Ben Gharbia and Abdelhak Toumi.

The trio were arrested Friday for having "committed an offense against the head of state".

Ben Gharbia allegedly asked Migalo to use his impersonation skills to imitate President Beji Caid Essebsi during a telephone conversation with a prominent businessman.

But lawyer Fethi Mouldi said his clients were "journalists who were investigating a corruption" case.

He said he expected them to be acquitted, saying "there is no plaintiff, no victim and not one penny has been given or taken".

Mouldi also said President Essebsi had nothing to do with the case.

"He is not a victim nor a plaintiff."

On Friday Essebsi's office promptly denied involvement in the proceedings, saying "freedom of the press and expression are acquisitions the president... is committed to defending, he being its principal guarantor."

Essebsi, 88, won Tunisia's first free presidential election in December, capping the transition to democracy in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.

As part of that transition, Tunisia adopted a new constitution that guarantees the right to freedom of conscience and expression.

An offense against the president is punishable by three years in prison, misrepresentation of identities by two years and fraud by five years.