President of the Association of Tunisian Judges (AMT) Anas Hmaïdi accused a section of the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM) of “leading the corruption lobby in the sector.”
Speaking at a press conference in Tunis on Thursday, Hmaïdi blamed the other CSM members, headed by its president and the president of the Judicial Council, for “the double responsibility of laxity regarding all the committed overruns.”
He considered that five years after the creation of the CSM, the Council of the Judiciary “has not been up to the requirements of this phase, both in terms of the movement of judges and the disciplinary files that are referred to it or that are accumulated at the General Inspection of the Justice Ministry.
He called in this regard, for “repairing the disasters committed during the last movement in the body of judges, based for the most part on clientelism and personal relationships,” to operate an exceptional movement for this purpose, and for more transparency in the appointments and selection criteria of judges.
He also accused CSM member and Attorney General at the Nabeul Court of Appeal Khaled Abbès “already subject to complaints involving disciplinary measures” of “controlling the movement of judges in the district of Nabeul, which has become a stronghold of corruption” and “using his power to intervene in several cases and to protect businessmen.”
Among these files is the case of sexual harassment involving MP Zouheir Makhlouf, that of the businessman and his wife who had escaped from the mandatory quarantine centre, or that of another businessman from the Boujbal family, which cost the state a loss of 10 million dinars, he revealed.
Hmaïdi affirmed that the Justice Ministry’s Inspector General “is covering the Khaled Abbès case, as he covered that of Taïeb Rached.”
The AMT president underlined the need to continue investigations in the case of Taïeb Rached, Béchir Akermi and the 11 other involved judges, as well as in the cases of political assassinations and terrorism.
Source: TAP News Agency