TUNIS: Amina Tyler, the 19-year-old Tunisian woman who scandalized many in the country by posting topless photos of herself online as a protest, could face six months in prison, her lawyer has said.

Tyler, who had to go into hiding after receiving death threats from conservative preachers for posting the photos, tried to stage a new protest at the religious center of Kairouan, where Muslims had planned to hold their annual conference.

Witnesses said she scrawled the name of FEMEN, the Ukrainian feminist group known for its use of nudity in protests, on the wall of a cemetery near the main mosque, and police alleged she sought to remove her clothes. An angry crowd gathered and she was hustled away by police.

Her lawyer, Mokhtar Jannene, said Tyler was charged only with carrying a dangerous object, which turned out to be a pen-sized personal protection device that shot some kind of debilitating spray. “It’s a case of judicial acrobatics,” scoffed her lawyer, who said the charge was based on a law dating from 1894 and should not have been used in this case.