It’s been a year since President Kais Saied of Tunisia fired 57 judges and prosecutors, accusing them of financial and “moral” corruption and obstructing investigations. That day, Saied issued a decree-law empowering the president to fire judges, virtually eliminating any pretense of the separation of powers.
These were among the most audacious moves of the ongoing power grab that Saied began on 25 July 2021, when he suspended parliament and said he was taking over supervision of the prosecutor’s office. To justify his concentration of power, Saied has charged that the governments that followed the 2011 revolution and in which the Ennahda party played a key role, were corrupt and lax toward terrorism – if not complicit in it.
#Tunisia: magistrates denounced at rally outside the #Tunis Court of 1st Instance Thursday the "injustice" endured by judges dismissed under Presidential Decree No. 2022-516 of June 1, 2022 & demanded "freeing the judiciary from the grip of the executive." https://t.co/be0Yvf8DVf pic.twitter.com/11XbjOG7uq
— TAP news agency (@TapNewsAgency) June 1, 2023
Abdesettar Khlifi, 58 and a father of four, who had a 28-year career as a judge and prosecutor, was among those fired on 1 June 2022. Although authorities accused the judges of wrongdoing, they gave them six months of severance pay before terminating their salary, their status as civil servants and the benefits that came with it, including medical coverage. At least some have been barred from travelling abroad. Two of them have been in prison since 12 February, including Bechir Akremi, who faces dubious charges relating to his handling of terrorism cases when he was chief prosecutor of Tunis.
The government never provided Khlifi or his colleagues with a hearing or any official explanation for their sacking, not even when they appealed to the administrative court of Tunis, which on 9 August 2022, ordered the government to reinstate the 49 who at the time were facing no charges of any kind. The government ignored the court order even though it is not subject to appeal. In January, the fired judges filed a complaint in court against the justice minister for noncompliance with a judicial ruling, under Penal Code article 315.
Tunisie : les magistrats appellent à la réintégration de leurs collègues "révoqués" https://t.co/cQsbuCRNjC pic.twitter.com/xgCJubVqWc
— ANADOLU AGENCY (FR) (@aa_french) June 1, 2023
The court has yet to respond. Instead of complying with the court order to rehire the judges, the Justice Ministry announced the opening of scores of criminal investigations against them, including terrorism-related accusations against 13, among them Khlifi. Prosecutors have also gone after lawyers defending the fired magistrates, like Ayachi Hammami, who was subpoenaed on accusations of spreading “false information” under Saied’s repressive decree-law 54 of 2022.
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https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/06/01/tunisia-subjugating-courts-key-saeids-power-grab
https://bnn.network/world/tunisia/protest-rally-in-tunis-as-dismissed-judges-seek-justice/
