Row over Real star Khedira's pic with nude lover heats up

Journalists lashed out at Tunisian authorities yesterday for jailing the editor of a newspaper that published a photo of star Real Madrid midfielder Sami Khedira embracing his naked model girlfriend.


Sami Khedira

Three journalists for newspaper Etounsia were arrested for indecency on Wednesday and held for questioning by a judge. The paper's editor, Nasreddine Ben Saida, is still in detention.

In the photograph, originally published in Germany's edition of GQ, German-Tunisian footballer Sami Khedira hugs his model girlfriend Lena Gercke, while concealing her breasts with his arms.

The arrests were "political and aimed at repressing freedom of the press and journalists," several unions representing journalists said in a joint statement.