More than 200 judges and lawyers in Tunisia protested outside the main court on Thursday against President Kais Saied announcement that he would scrap a key judicial watchdog.
Dressed in their traditional black robes, the legal practitioners demanded that he president keeps off the Supreme Judicial Council (CSM), noting that its disbandment would amount to a violation of rights and freedoms.
According to AFP, President Saied had long accused the CSM of blocking politically sensitive investigations and being influenced by his nemesis, the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party.
He said he had no intention of interfering with the judiciary, and that another watchdog would be constituted to replace CSM.
“Let me be clear: the council will be dissolved and replaced by another one, by decree,” he said.
“Justice is a job, not a branch of government. All judges are answerable to the law.”
In a statement released on Thursday, the CSM said it “totally rejects the use of decrees to infringe on the constitutional structure of the judiciary” and that any alternative would have no legal basis.
(With input from AFP)
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