By RFIPosted on 06-11-2019Modified on 06-11-2019 at 19:12

Kaïs Saïed, the newly elected Tunisian president, has made the fight against corruption the priority of his mandate. He also recalled this during his investiture speech on October 13, and investigations have already begun. On Tuesday, the court ordered the pre-trial detention of Sami Fehri, the owner of the private television channel Al Hiwar Ettounsi.

Popular animator and rich businessman, Sami Fehri is suspected, for years of money laundering and embezzlement of public funds.

This is a complaint filed earlier this year by the Ministry of Finance that has restarted the case. According to the Judiciary and Administrative Cluster, charged with combating corruption, Sami Fehri is suspected of laundering money and signing irregular contracts in the name of Cactus Prod, an audiovisual production group he founded in 2002 with Belhassen Trabelsi, the brother-in-law of former President Ben Ali. In 2011, the state recovered 51% of this company, among other property confiscated from the Ben Ali family.

Today, several executives of the group are in the sights of Tunisian justice. The attorney for Cactus Prod, as well as his legal director, have also been remanded.

According to the judicial authorities, Sami Fehri had already been detained in 2012 for embezzlement of public funds and would still be prosecuted in connection with this case. His detention for the purposes of the investigation must last 5 days.

A few days ago Chawki Tayeb, the head of the body in charge of the fight against corruption in Tunisia indicates that the judiciary is accelerating ongoing corruption cases . More than 1,000 cases are filed before this body. Many cases concern the entourage of former President Ben Ali, but this legal work has dragged on since 2011.

► See also: Kaïs Saïed invested president of Tunisia

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