Tunisia-Association of Young Magistrates: “Saied has no legal basis or competence to dissolve the CSM”

The Tunisian Association of Young Magistrates believed that the President of the Republic, Kais Saied, “has no legal basis, nor competence or legitimacy to dissolve the Superior Council of the Judiciary, elected among the judges”. It called in this context, the CSM to continue its job naturally and to convene a general assembly bringing together all the judges and structures to embrace unified positions. Furthermore calling on all components of civil society, in particular the profession’s members of the Council, to stay united in the face of tries to seize and submit to the judiciary.

“The situation is excessively difficult, and that the President of the Republic overrides the will of the Tunisians and the laws approved by their deputies and dissolves all the authorities unilaterally, without their referendum on the question, with the purpose of establishing a totalitarian regime. in which political and judicial powers are united in the hands of the president,” it said.

The association indicated that it plans to “draft a complaint to the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers as soon as possible, including a detailed diagnosis of what justice has suffered after July 25, 2022. While evoking all the abuses and violations perpetrated since that date, such as the travel ban imposed on the judges, their accusation without evidence, their defamation as well as the exercise of pressure on them and the control of their decisions under threat and intimidation”.

It also stressed its quest for complete coordination with the rest of the judicial structures in order to issue common positions and actions in the forthcoming days. Calling on the Council of Young Magistrates and the Council of Elders of the Association to meet in an exceptional plenary session to be held on Saturday 12 February 2022 under the overseeing of the governing body of the Association and invited all judges to attend and vote on decisions offered by the governing body in previous communiqués.