This is a new step for President Kaïs Saïed towards the exercise of solitary power.
After announcing
,
on Sunday February 6
,
the dissolution of the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM), the headquarters of the institution resulting from the 2014 Constitution was surrounded the next day by the police to prevent its members from entering it.
“It's a decision that has sparked indignation within the judiciary and civil society is concerned about the non-separation of powers in Tunisia,” explains Lilia Blaise, France 24 correspondent in Tunis.
This coup appears to be the culmination of several months of tension between the Tunisian president and the magistrates of the CSM.
Since freezing parliament and dismissing then-prime minister Hichem Mechichi last July
,
the head of state has made no secret of his desire to reform the judiciary.
The latest attack dates back to late January, when the Tunisian president ended a number of in-kind benefits to CSM members.
In the eyes of Kaïs Saïed, this institution, which was supposed to guarantee the independence of justice and definitively draw a line under the arbitrariness that reigned under the Ben Ali regime, is on the contrary plagued by corruption and partisan struggles.
"Positions and appointments are sold and are made according to affiliations", accuses the president
,
according to whom "certain magistrates have been able to receive large sums of money in return".
Unpunished crimes
Corruption, slowness, lack of independence: these criticisms of justice are common in Tunisia.
Several magistrates had also called for a reform of the CSM.
"If any attack against the judicial institution is worrying, there is a consensus today in Tunisia to say that justice does not work. It has been pointed out by all international organizations for decades", assures the lawyer Franco-Tunisian Majid Bouden on the France 24 antenna.
Several controversies have recently shaken the judicial world
,
such as this violent conflict, last year,
between the two highest magistrates in the country, the president of the Court of Cassation, Taieb Rached, and the former public prosecutor, Bechir Akremi, who accuse each other of corruption.
>> Political crisis in Tunisia: lawyers and deputies denounce a "legal vacuum"
Suspicions of ineffective and partisan justice are also fueled by political crimes whose perpetrators go unpunished.
The two most emblematic cases concern the assassinations of Chokri Belaïd and Mohamed Brahmi, two figures of the Tunisian left assassinated in 2013, while they were leading an opinion campaign against the Islamist party Ennahda in power.
The date chosen for the announcement of the dissolution of the CSM certainly owed nothing to chance.
The decision came on the ninth anniversary of Chokri Belaid's assassination.
During a demonstration organized to commemorate this crime and demand justice, his supporters widely applauded the presidential decision.
Present at this rally, the brother of Chokri Belaïd, Abdelmajid, accused the Ennahda party of having "manipulated and slowed down for nine years" the investigation "to hide the evidence of the involvement of the leaders of Ennahda."
An uncertain future
According to experts, Kaïs Saïed thus wanted to target the Islamist party, his pet peeve, which controlled Parliament and the governments of the last ten years after the 2011 revolution in this country, the cradle of the Arab Spring.
"Justice is conceived as an instrument of government", deplores
Majid Bouden.
"It is used when it suits and rejected when it does not serve" political interests, adds the lawyer.
From now on, uncertainty reigns over the functioning of this pillar of democracy.
Two-thirds of the magistrates of the CSM – made up of 45 members – are normally elected by Parliament, which then appoints the remaining third themselves.
However, the dissolution of the CSM "is a decision taken in an exceptional period, Parliament is still suspended", recalls our correspondent, Lilia Blaise.
>> To read: Tunisia launches a national consultation to the detriment of democratic gains
With this new blow to the Constitution, Kaïs Saïed gets rid of a counter-power but without offering a new political horizon.
"It's not just the method that is in question, it's the purpose. The objective is to reform, but with what means?" Asks Majid Bouden, who pleads for intervention an international body to carry out the reform of the judicial system.
For his part, the president said he was preparing "a provisional decree" to reorganize the CSM and assures that he has no intention of interfering in the functioning of justice.
With AFP
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