Tunisia court confirms jails term for journalist

TUNIS (Reuters) - A Tunisian appeals court confirmed a one-year jail sentence against a journalist for verbally abusing a police officer, his lawyer said on Saturday.

Slim Boukhdhir, a virulent critic of the government who has worked for Arab newspapers including the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi daily, was arrested last November.

The court on Friday upheld the sentence against Boukhdhir on charges of verbally assaulting a member of the government's security services, misconduct and refusing to show his identity card when asked by police, his lawyer Abdelwaheb El Maater said.

Boukhdhir denied all the charges, and had appealed against the original sentence, passed on Dec 4, 2007. He has been in prison since his arrest in November.

"The ruling is so severe. Normally, the penalty in such cases does not exceed two months," El Maater added.

Tunisia is north Africa's most stable and prosperous country, but the government has been widely accused of muzzling the press, stifling free speech and beating and jailing opponents. It denies the charges.

(Reporting by Sonia Ounissi; Editing by William Maclean and Caroline Drees)