Tunisia dissolves Supreme Judicial Council

Tunisia’s president has issued a decree establishing a provisional Supreme Judiciary Council, effectively replacing the body he abolished and granting himself additional powers to control the country’s top judicial organisation, Report informs referring to AlJazeera.

The decree, published on the official gazette on February 13, says the president can relieve judges who violate their official duties and object to the promotion or nomination of judges.

It also forbids judges from going on strike, a form of dissent that had been adopted following President Kais Saied’s move to dissolve the top judicial watchdog on February 6.

Tunisia, often lauded as the only democracy to emerge from the 2011 Arab Spring revolts, has seen some of its gains reversed since Saied was elected president with almost 73 percent of the vote in a runoff election in October 2019.