TUNIS: A judge serving on Tunisia’s electoral board resigned on Monday in solidarity with a court strike after President Kais Saied sacked dozens of his colleagues.
Habib Rebii, appointed by Saied to the ISIE electoral board on May 9, announced his resignation on Facebook.
“I have handed in my resignation from ISIE in support of my fellow judges and to demand a basic judicial law that meets international standards,” he wrote.
Saied, who dissolved parliament following a power grab last July, had issued a decree extending his control over the judiciary in early June, as well as sacking 57 judges he accused of corruption.
That prompted a nationwide judges’ strike against his “continued interference in the judiciary”, which entered its second week on Monday.
Rebii’s departure comes six weeks ahead of a referendum on a revised constitution, the centrepiece of Saied’s programme for overhauling Tunisia’s political system — the only democracy to emerge from the 2011 Arab uprisings.
Rebii had been appointed after Saied on April 22 gave himself powers to pick members of the formerly independent ISIE electoral board, which will oversee both Saied’s July 25 referendum and elections on December 17. Critics have accused Saied of dragging Tunisia back towards autocracy, 11 years since the fall of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Meanwhile, a Tunisian military court has placed a journalist in custody after he made comments about the army during a television broadcast, his lawyer said.
The military prosecutor’s office opened an investigation after Salah Attia, who works for a local daily, made the remarks to Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera on Friday, his lawyer Samir Ben Amor said.
Attia said Tunisian President Kais Saied had “officially asked the military to intervene against the Tunisian General Labour Union” — a powerful body known as the UGTT — and to surround its offices ahead of a general strike called for June 16. Attia, who opposes a power grab by Saied that began in July last year, said the army told the UGTT it had refused the president’s request. – AFP