Tunisia's Court of Cassation was on Thursday reviewing the jail terms of two young men for posting cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed on the Internet, a case that has angered the secular opposition.

"I am at the court, the hearing is about to begin. After the hearing, I will make known the progress of the case," defense lawyer Ahmed Mselmi told Agence France Presse.

Tunisian MPs on Wednesday adopted a law creating a temporary independent body tasked with overseeing the judiciary, more than two years after the revolution and following months of disagreement.

The law was adopted almost unanimously, with 151 votes in favor and four abstentions, according to national television which broadcast the debate.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) late Friday reached a framework agreement with Tunisia on a two-year, $1.75 billion standby loan deal.

The agreement, which awaits final approval from the IMF board of directors, is aimed at helping the country's battered economy following the uprising that toppled a decades-old dictatorship in January 2011 and ignited the Arab Spring.

Global hopes that democracy could replace dictatorships in Arab Spring nations risk being crushed by repressive regimes, the United States warned Friday in its annual human rights report.

"The hope of the early days of the Arab Awakening has run up against the harsh realities of incomplete and contested transitions," the State Department said in its assessment of the global situation of human rights in 2012.

Lebanon has returned to Tunisia 28.8 million dollars stashed away there by the family of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was overthrown in January 2011, President Moncef Marzouki's office said Thursday.

The funds were returned by Qatari chief prosecutor Ali bin Fetais al-Marri, who has been charged by the United Nations with coordinating inquiries into funds diverted by leaders overthrown in the Arab Spring, a statement said.

Two young Tunisians who sprayed slogans on a school building were cleared by a court on Wednesday of "harming public order" in a case seen by some as an attack on the right to freedom of expression.

Oussama Bouajila and Chahine Berriche, members of urban art collective Zwewla, sprayed "The poor are Tunisia's living dead", and "The people want rights for the poor" on a school building in the southern city of Gabes last year.

Tunisian Islamists and opposition activists demonstrated on Tuesday for Martyrs' Day, marking a 1938 massacre of nationalists by French troops, as a strong police presence deterred any major incident.

Since the 2011 revolution that ousted long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Martyr's Day has also commemorated those killed in that struggle, and the event degenerated into violence last year.

The Arab Journalists Union on Monday lamented legal threats and restrictions affecting reporters working in the region, particularly in Egypt and Tunisia.

The AJU "denounces legal proceedings targeting journalists in all Arab countries and expresses solidarity with colleagues in Egypt and Tunisia," it said in a final declaration following a meeting in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott.

Tunisia's main trade union confederation, the UGTT, lashed out on Saturday at the Islamist-led government for failing to crack down on a militia for attacking their headquarters in December.

General Union of Tunisian Workers secretary general Houcine Abassi accused the government of lacking the "political will to recognize that the UGTT was attacked by the League for Protecting the Revolution (LPR)," a group said to support the government.

The authorities in Tunisia are refusing to free TV station owner Sami Fehri despite a new court order for his release, his lawyer said on Saturday, adding talks were under way with the justice ministry.

"It's a legal problem," Abdelaziz Essid told Agence France Presse.