This is a new blow for the judicial system in Tunisia, which has been under pressure for several months by the decisions of the president, Kaïs Saïed. According to a decree published in the Official Journal on the night of Wednesday 1is June, 57 judges were sacked. The magistrates are suspected of corruption, illicit enrichment, undermining state security or disrupting the functioning of justice, according to the list of grievances put forward to justify these dismissals.
“We cannot save the country without cleaning up the judicial system”, declared Mr. Saïed during a ministerial council on Wednesday. After having dissolved, in February, for the same reasons, the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM), a body supposed to ensure the proper functioning of justice and respect for its independence, the President granted himself the power to revoke the judges via a decree-law. The decision had caused an outcry within a part of the judiciary which had demonstrated to preserve its independence.
These dismissals come at a time when very political trials are being held linked to the assassinations, in 2013, of two leaders of the left, Chokri Belaïd and Mohamed Brahmi. On Wednesday, without explicitly alluding to it, Mr. Saïed expressed his impatience with “late” and to “premeditated adjournments” justice on certain cases. Tuesday, May 31, the trial of the assassination of Mohamed Brahmi was for example postponed to October 4.
“We refuse any intervention in the work of justice but duty requires a reaction”, declared the head of state the next day. Since he granted himself full powers on July 25, 2021, he has regularly called for the truth to be revealed about these cases in which the Islamo-conservative Ennahda party, the majority in Parliament at the time of the assassinations, is cited. and today facing the hostility of the president.
Among the list of names of dismissed judges are many prosecutors and investigating judges such as Béchir Akremi, a former investigating judge cited in the political assassination case, or Taïeb Rached who had been suspended from his duties in 2021 after having been accused of financial corruption. Some magistrates consider that the list also targets personalities in disagreement with Mr. Saïed, such as Youssef Bouzakher, the former president of the CSM who had denounced the dissolution of his body by the president.
Executive power “grab”
“Even if the list includes the names of “ripoux” judges known to all, the majority concerns judges who have left their duty of reserve in the face of Kaïs Saïed”, comments Ahmed Souab, lawyer and former magistrate. He considers these dismissals as “a violation of all the rights of a judge, including the right to at least be able to defend himself like any other citizen”. In fact, Mr. Saïed published on Wednesday an additional decree prohibiting the dismissed magistrates from any possibility of appealing to this decision until they have been tried for the facts with which they are accused.
Jaouhar Ben Mbarek, one of the leaders of Citizens Against the Coup, an opposition collective to the head of state, castigated a “massacre in the judiciary” and a president who now considers himself “judge of judges”. Former deputies of the Democratic Current (Social Democrat) have also denounced “a stranglehold” executive power over justice, during a press conference, Thursday, June 2. Ghazi Chaouachi, the president of the party, announced the intention of his party and other political movements to boycott the constitutional and legislative referendum scheduled for July 25 by the president.
Less than two months before this deadline, the isolation of the Tunisian president is growing. Evidenced by the recent refusal of the powerful UGTT trade union center to participate in the national dialogue proposed by Kaïs Saïed with the aim of founding a “New Republic”. Relations are also strained with Tunisia’s external partners. On Monday, the president thus denounced a “unacceptable interference” from the Venice Commission, an advisory body of the Council of Europe, which had just issued a critical report on its plans for constitutional reform.
The president announced “the expulsion from Tunisian territory” of the said committee. On Wednesday evening, he also overwhelmed “those who sell our sovereignty to foreign forces”, without specifying who he was referring to. According to Mr. Souab, the president, cornered by criticism of his reforms, “needs this theatricality, by dismissing the judges, to create a diversion”.