TUNIS - A Tunisian editor arrested for re-publishing a photograph of Real Madrid midfielder Sami Khedira embracing his naked model girlfriend will appear in court today on charges of violating morality, his lawyer said.

Nasreddine Ben Saida, editor of the Ettounsia newspaper, published the photo, which first appeared in the German edition of GQ magazine, last week.

"This is a serious incident and a true scandal for Tunisian justice," Ben Saida's lawyer Khaled Krichi said on Tuesday. In the picture, the German footballer of Tunisian origin is wearing a dinner jacket and embracing his girlfriend, German fashion model Lena Gercke, his hand resting on her breast in a risqué pose.

"We did not expect such treatment of journalists, which recalls the practices of the former regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali," Krichi said.

"We are against the publication of this photo, that is against our Arab-Muslim principles, but it's not necessary to criminalise such an act."

Ben Ali, Tunisia's long-serving autocratic president, was ousted last year after a popular uprising.

"We are surprised by the introduction of this case in a Tunisian court," Krichi said.

The editor is accused of engaging in an "attack on morality with the risk of disturbing the public order", and could face from six months to five years in jail plus a fine of up to 1200 dinars (about R6000) if found guilty.

Tunisian press unions have slammed Ben Saida's arrest, saying in that the action sought to "repress the freedom of journalists and the press". Khedira himself reacted to the editor's arrest and told the German daily Bild that he was saddened.

"I respect the different religions that exist and also the faith that people have, but I cannot understand that people cannot express themselves freely," he said.