Constitutional considerations behind Tunisian president's disbanding of Judicial Council
Tunisian President, Kais Saied, is taking a series of decisions to control the legal situation in his country, a few months after he dissolved the parliament and sacked the cabinet.
The Tunisian leader announced on
February 6 the dissolution of the Supreme Judicial Council.
He took the decision, he said,
because the council served the interests of specific parties, far from the good
of the Tunisian public.
President Saied also accused the
council of manipulating some files.
During a visit to the Ministry of
the Interior on that day, the Tunisian president said the council has to
consider itself part of the past.
"This council has become a
place where positions are sold and the judicial movement based on loyalties,"
the president said.
Constitutional decisions
The decisions taken by the Tunisian
president are opposed by the leaders of the Tunisian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood
and its political arm, namely Ennahda Party.
However, the same decisions come in
a constitutional and legal context.
Chapter 80 of the Tunisian
Constitution of 2014 stipulates that the president has the right to take
exceptional decisions in the event of an imminent danger to Tunisian security
and independence.
It adds that the president would
take these decisions after consulting with the prime minister and the
parliament speaker, along with MPs and after informing the head of the Constitutional
Court.
The chapter clarifies that these
measures must aim to ensure the return to the normal functioning of the state as
soon as possible.
President Saied took his latest
decisions in the light of this constitutional chapter.
"We will work on establishing a
temporary law or decree for the Supreme Judicial Council," the president
said.
He accused some judges of amassing
huge wealth in illegal manners.
The Tunisian Presidency said,
meanwhile, that President Saied had highlighted the right of the Tunisian
public to know the truth.
The Tunisian public also has the
right to have a just judiciary whose conduct is supervised by judges who only
apply the law, the presidency said.
