Femen activists freed by Tunisia return to France

Three activists for the feminist group Femen have returned to France after being released by Tunisia on Wednesday night. They were released after an appeals court suspended their jail sentence over a nude protest.

French Femen activist Marguerite Stern just after she is released from prison in Tunis, 27 June Reuters/Zoubeir Souissi

The three women – two French and one German – touched down in Paris’s Orly airport late on Thursday morning and were welcomed back by the head of Femen in France, Inna Shevchenko, and their lawyer, Patrick Klugman.

According to an AFP journalist, the women were quickly ushered away in a taxi.

The three women were jailed for four months and one day for indecency after being arrested on May 29 for a topless protest outside the main courthouse in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, in support of detained Tunisian activist Amina Sboui.

The three women were appealing against the sentence. The sentence was upheld on appeal but was suspended, allowing the women to walk free.

During the appeals hearing on Wednesday, the women apologised for staging the protest, saying they did not intend to shock Tunisians.