Tunis  - The Tunisian court of appeals on Saturday postponed hearing the case of Sadok Chourou, former leader of a Tunisian Islamist party banned in the 1990s, his lawyer said.

Attorney Samir Ben Omar told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the court agreed to postpone the hearing until March 23 in response to a request from Chourou's
20-member defence team, which sought more time to prepare the case. The court rejected a request to free Chourou.

Tunis - The former leader of a Tunisian Islamist party banned in the 1990s is expected to, on Saturday, appeal a judge's decision to jail him just weeks after his release from prison, his lawyer told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Friday.

Lawyer Sami Ben Omar told dpa that Sadok Chourou, 62, would appeal a one-year prison sentence passed against him on December 13, little more than a month after he was conditionally released after serving 17 years in prison.

Chourou was the leader of Tunisia's Islamist al-Nahda, or "Renaissance," Party when Tunisian authorities banned it in 1991. Military courts sentenced him and hundreds of other members to prison on charges of seeking to establish an Islamic state in Tunisia in the early
1990s.

Tunis  - Tunisian authorities on Monday said they were searching for survivors or bodies of would-be immigrants whose boat has reportedly sank off Tunisian shores, a security source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Five would-be immigrants survived the sinking by swimming to the al-Marsa shore, 20 kilometres north of the capital Tunis.

Authorities are using military helicopters and a number of divers to conduct the search. The search team has not yet found any survivors or bodies, the source said.

Tunis, Paris - On the 21st anniversary of his taking power, Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has pardoned the last members of the banned Tunisian Islamic group Ennahdha still in prison, a judicial source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Wednesday.

According to the source, 21 leaders and activists of the Islamic movement, including the former head of the group, who was known as Sadok Chourou, received a "conditional release" from jail.

Several members of the group, including Chourou, were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1992 for terrorist activities.

Tunis - Fifty illegal immigrants have died in an attempt to reach Europe from North Africa