The British Middle East Eye website published a document described as "top secret" which it said was leaked from the office of the director of the Tunisian Presidential Court, Nadia Okasha - dating back to May 13, 2021 - talking about plotting a coup in Tunisia.

According to the document, senior advisers urged Tunisian President Kais Saied to wrest control of the country from the elected government at a time when the country is fighting the Corona pandemic and the high level of debt.

The plan is to invite the president's political opponents to the presidential palace and announce the coup with their presence, while not allowing them to leave, and at the same time a number of other senior politicians and businessmen will be arrested.

The document explains how the president will activate an article in the constitution that gives him - in a state of national emergency - complete control over the state.

Senior advisers to the Tunisian president urged Kais Said to wrest control of the country from the elected government (Reuters)

Urgent meeting

Under the leaked plan, the president will call an urgent meeting of the National Security Council in his palace in Carthage under the guise of the epidemic, the security situation and the general financial situation of the country.

Said will then announce what the document called "constitutional dictatorship," which the authors say is a tool "to concentrate all powers in the hands of the president of the republic."

The document described the situation as a "national emergency," which states: "In such a case, the role of the President of the Republic is to gather all the powers in his grasp so that it becomes the center of power that enables him exclusively from all powers."

Then, President Saeed will announce to the attendees, who include Prime Minister Hisham Al-Mechishi, Parliament Speaker and Ennahda leader Rashid Ghannouchi, that he will activate Article 80 of the constitution that allows the president to seize powers in a state of national emergency.

The document states that Al-Mashishi and Ghannouchi will not be allowed to leave the palace, which will be entered into a state of complete isolation from the outside, and in the meantime the president will deliver a televised speech to the nation to announce his coup.

house arrest

The document also stipulates the appointment of Major General Khaled Al Yahyawi as the acting Minister of Interior, and the armed forces will be deployed "at the entrances to cities, institutions and vital facilities."

At the same time, the main people will be placed under house arrest, including from the Ennahda movement: Noureddine Al-Buhairi, Rafiq Abdul-Salam, Abdel-Karim Al-Harouni, and Sayed Al-Ferjani.

Among the representatives of the Dignity Bloc are: Ghazi Al-Qarawi and Sufyan Tobal, in addition to businessmen, consultants, and others.

To make the coup popular, the document says all bill payments or electricity, water, phone, internet, bank loans and taxes will be suspended for 30 days, and basic commodity and fuel prices will be reduced by 20%.

The document also stated that "the session will end after that without allowing the attendees to leave the Carthage Palace, while keeping the presidential palace area, before and after that, temporarily separate from communication networks and the Internet."

According to the plan, Mashichi will remain prime minister temporarily to avoid having to take all these steps (Anadolu Agency)

Prime Minister

The plan includes proposals to prevent any parliamentarian wanted by the Tunisian courts from leaving the country, and to exempt all those affiliated with political parties from their posts in the country.

The president will conduct a "comprehensive cabinet reshuffle while retaining only the prime minister," and he will be advised by a group of emergency committees.

When asked why Saeed wanted to keep the prime minister while replacing all his ministers, a senior Tunisian political source with close ties to the presidency said that this would be a way to neutralize him without having to dismiss him immediately, which is a complicated procedure, as it involves a necessary vote from Parliament.

The source, who requested anonymity, said that Mechishi will remain temporarily prime minister to avoid having to take all these steps.

The source close to Saeed's advisers said that the plan had been discussed by circles close to the president since April 2021, but had not been delivered to him directly.

Soft coup

The Tunisian president, who took office in 2019, was previously accused of laying the groundwork for a "soft coup" inside Tunisia.

Earlier this year, he described his presidential role as "supreme commander of the military and civilian armed forces" during a speech attended by both Mashishi and Ghannouchi.

President Said said, "There is no discrimination ... the law, the texts of the world, the law of contracts and obligations all mention this. The armed forces are the army and the security forces as well." His special mention of the president's authority over the internal security forces raised alarm bells within the Tunisian political establishment.