Secretary General of the Tunisian General Labor Union (French: UGTT) Noureddine Taboubi called on judges who are observing a strike, in protest against the dismissal of 57 judgs by the President of the Republic, to return to work next Monday.
Member of the coordination of judicial structures and president of the Association of Tunisian Judges Anas Hamadi, pledged to respond positively to this call.
At a meeting between representatives of various trade union structures and civil society, including the presidents of national organisations: the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, the National Union of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) and the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women, Taboubi expressed UGTT’s support to judges in their fight to defend the judicial power.
Taboubi also urged the dismissed judges who began a hunger strike several days ago to suspend this strike and follow other forms of protest so that they avoid seeing their health condition deteriorate.
The UGTT Secretary General called on the Administrative Court to speed up the review of appeals lodged against the dismissal of judges. More particularly, he stressed the need to review the decision of dismissal so as to preserve the prestige of the judiciary and the rights of judges to the presumption of innocence.
He called on the executive power to keep the case of the judiciary away from what he describes as “score settling” and “trials on Facebook” considering that the executive contributed, in a direct or indirect way, to the deterioration of this sector.
President of the Association of Tunisian Judges Anas Hamadi said that the Coordination of Judicial Structures will meet late this week and respond positively to the request of the UGTT Secretary-General to lift the strike.
Several decisions will be made during this meeting regarding the forms of protests to be adopted in the near future, he further said.
“The Coordination of Judicial Structures is against corruption in all its forms and does not oppose accountability,” he underlined, explaining that the dismissal mechanism is only the result of information and reports provided by the police.
“We are campaigning to protect the judiciary against the control of the executive and ensure separation of powers,” he added.
Source: Tap News Agency