On Thursday, dozens of judges, attorneys, and civil society activists protested President Kais Saied’s removal of more than 50 judges a year ago in Tunis.
The protesters criticized the government’s “stranglehold” on the courts.
Since mid-February, police have jailed many of President Kais Saied’s most vocal detractors.
“Several lawyers handling important cases and of interest to the public opinion have informed us that the judges who are looking into those cases are afraid, and saying either they stop looking into those cases or they will get dismissed. Unfortunately, they [the judges, Ed.] were instructed to stop looking [into cases, Ed.] and we say we are against these practices which were common during [late President Zine El Abidine, Ed.] Ben Ali’s era.
“We don’t want these practices to resurface,” said Anas Hamadi, president of the Tunisian Magistrates’ Association.
Mr Saied disbanded the Supreme Council of the Judiciary (CSM) in early 2022, just months after assuming full control on July 25, 2021, and replaced it with a transitory council whose members he chose.
The President chooses magistrates on the suggestion of the SJC, which formerly possessed this jurisdiction, under the new Constitution, which he promulgated in the summer of 2022.
