13 August 2022; MEMO: The Tunisian Ennahda Movement expressed its satisfaction with the Administrative Court's decision to suspend the implementation of the presidential dismissal orders against several judges.
Last Wednesday, the Administrative Court decided to suspend the implementation of President Kais Saied's decision to dismiss a number of judges, according to a judicial statement.
Anadolu Agency reported that Ennahda announced in a statement that it: "Expresses its satisfaction with the Administrative Court's decision to suspend the implementation of a large number of unjust dismissal decisions issued on 1 June, 2022."
Ennahda considered that: "What the Administrative Court has taken represents fairness to the judges and rehabilitation for them after they were dismissed, defamed, harming the honour of some of them and accusing them of corruption without any grounds or evidence."
Ennahda stressed that: "This decision is an important step in the path of the independence of the judiciary and the rejection of the judiciary of instructions and favouritism."
The Tunisian authorities did not issue any immediate comment on Ennahda's statement, however, they usually deny such accusations and affirm their commitment to the independence of the judiciary.
Last June, President Saied issued an order to dismiss 57 judges from their duties on charges of "changing the course of cases", "disrupting investigations" on terrorism cases and committing "financial and moral corruption", which the judges deny.
The decree to dismiss the 57 judges was rejected by Tunisian unions and parties and caused heavy international criticism, especially by the US and Amnesty International.
Since 25 July, 2021, Tunisia has witnessed a severe political crisis when Saied imposed exceptional measures, including dismissing the government and appointing a new one, dissolving the Supreme Judicial Council and Parliament, issuing legislation by presidential decrees, passing a new Constitution through a referendum on 25 July and setting an early date for parliamentary elections on 17 December.
Tunisian forces consider these measures a "coup against the 2014 constitution and a consolidation of an absolute individual rule", while other forces see them as a "correction of the course of the 2011 revolution" that toppled the former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Meanwhile, Saied, who began a five-year presidential term in 2019, asserts that his measures are legal and necessary to save Tunisia from a "total collapse".
