Previous protests by judges and lawyers to demand the independence of the judiciary before the Court of First Instance in Tunisia (Al Jazeera)

Tunisia -

Reactions varied regarding the position of the Bar Association towards the situation of rights and freedoms and the judiciary in Tunisia. While some considered that it had returned after a long absence to rise up against the regime of President Kais Saied due to what it considered a deterioration of freedoms, others said that its position falls within the framework of its defense of material rights only. .

After being described as supporting President Saied, the Bar Association issued, in a surprise move yesterday, Thursday, a statement in which it denounced what it described as “restrictions on freedoms, and the frequent targeting of lawyers, journalists, trade unionists, and political and human rights activists, under restrictive laws with harsh sentences, without respect for legal procedures and defense rights, and without guarantees.” Judicial."

The Bar Association denounced the “deterioration” of public and individual freedoms, due to the frequency of prosecutions under Decree 54, related to combating information and communications crimes, which the opposition, the Journalists Syndicate, and other human rights organizations consider “a sword hanging over the necks of everyone who criticizes President Saied.” The Bar Association said: The “intensification” of prosecutions under that law “is considered an embodiment of the suppression of freedom of expression and the confiscation of opinion that contradicts the authority.”

Threat of protests

The Bar Association’s statement comes after numerous complaints by lawyers who are being investigated on charges of conspiring against state security and insulting others. Their work is also being restricted with arbitrary procedures that violate the rights of defense when standing by their clients, whether before security teams or prison administrations, according to lawyers.

The statement of the Bar Association is not limited only to the limits of denouncing and denouncing the state of freedoms, the frequency of prosecutions, or attacks on the independence of the legal sector or the judiciary, but it reached the point of threatening to carry out protest movements, starting with boycotts in sessions, all the way to stops to denounce the deterioration of the conditions of freedoms.

Indeed, the Bar Association issued a second statement, hours after its strongly worded statement against the authority, in which it called on all lawyers to attend en masse next Wednesday, to protest the trial of lawyer Abdel Aziz Al-Said, one of the members of the Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners, accused by the authority of conspiring against... State Security.

The Commission called for the immediate release of all political prisoners, lawyers, journalists, and others who were imprisoned because of their positions or expressing their opinions, out of respect for the presumption of innocence and to provide conditions for fair trials, and called for the establishment of a modern, democratic, and participatory political system that separates powers.

Some consider these criticisms and calls directed by the Bar Association to be a strong and direct blow to President Kais Saied, and his political system that he has been seeking to establish since July 25, 2021, under which he overthrew the previous parliament and abolished the 2014 Constitution, in order to enact a new constitution in which he has almost absolute influence.

Human rights activist Al-Ayashi Al-Hammami believes that the Bar Association’s statement was not sufficient, but it is a step in the right direction (Al-Jazeera)

Positive step

Lawyer and human rights activist Ayachi Hammami believes that the Bar Association’s statement “came late, compared to the history of the legal sector’s struggle, and in light of the setback that Tunisia is witnessing due to the coup against the constitution by President Kais Saied,” but he considers that the Bar Association’s statement is a step in the right direction to condemn the “coup.” .

In a statement to Al Jazeera Net, Al-Hammami, one of the lawyers prosecuted on charges of conspiring against state security, according to Decree 54, said, “The Bar Association recorded a positive position by exposing the oppressive practices of the current regime, and its adherence to the principles of democracy, and the independence of the judiciary and the legal profession against the hegemony of authority and seizing control of it.” .

But he considers that the statement of the Bar Association was not sufficient, because it did not call for the return of 57 judges to their work, after they were dismissed by President Saied on June 1, 2022 on corruption charges, citing charges that include obstructing investigations related to terrorism, and financial and moral corruption, despite the fact that the court In August 2022, the administration decided provisions to return 49 dismissed judges to their work.

Al-Hammami also said that the Bar Association’s statement did not address President Saied directly to cancel Decree No. 35 of 2022, according to which he granted himself “the power to dismiss judges and public prosecutors at his whim, based on reports from unspecified authorized parties, stating that they pose a threat to public security or higher interests.” "For the country."

However, Hammami asserts that the Bar Association’s statement is “the first egg in the basket,” given that the Tunisian legal sector has a long history of resisting tyranny and struggling for democracy, and not a history of getting closer to power, pointing out that “it is too early to talk about the repercussions of the new position.” To the Bar Association.

Late position

On the other hand, the leader of the Democratic Current Party, Hisham Al-Ajbouni, says that “the legal body’s statement comes on the right track, in response to the deterioration of the climate of freedoms in the country,” but he confirms to Al-Jazeera Net that it “came late in view of its silent position in support of the president’s path since the date of his announcement of... “Extraordinary measures in 2021.”

He pointed to the many criticisms against the Bar Association, due to its silence in exposing the violations taking place, saying, “The Bar Authority did not even stand by the political detainees for the sake of the profession, such as Ghazi Al-Shawashi, Reda Bel-Hajj, and Nour El-Din Al-Behairi, and even the Dean of Lawyers did not bother to visit them in prison.” ".

Al-Ajbouni does not know whether the change in the Bar Association’s position on the ruling regime comes in the context of a radical review of its options, based on its conclusion of the deterioration of public conditions and the reality of freedoms, or whether it is merely a maneuver to improve the conditions for negotiation, due to some developments related to the legal profession, which affect the financial interests of lawyers.

Some critics of the Bar Association believe that it neglected to register an honorable position in confronting the “coup” and accepting the measures approved by the President on July 25, 2021, noting that the former Dean of Lawyers, Ibrahim Bouderbala, was rewarded with the presidency of the current parliament after his support for President Saied.

A few days ago, the Competition Council announced that it had taken a temporary decision to suspend implementation of the Bar Association’s decision regarding determining a list of the amounts of minimum fees for lawyers and the criteria for determining them, until the matter is decided. This decision aroused the ire of the Bar Association, which was already resentful of referring the draft law to revoke the certificates for consideration in Parliament.

This draft law expands the powers of issuing certificates, especially at the level of concluding marriage contracts and organizing divorce procedures if it is by mutual consent between the spouses. It is a project that the Bar Association opposes in its entirety, and considers it “a seizure of the powers and specializations of lawyers, and a blow to the gains of the Tunisian family.”

Source: Al Jazeera