TUNIS: A coalition of 10 rights groups Friday condemned a decree by Tunisian President Kais Saied firing scores of judges, describing it as a “deep blow to judicial independence.”
The June 1 presidential decree saw Saied award himself the power to fire judges, and he duly sacked 57 of them, further cementing a power grab that began in July last year when he dismissed the government and suspended an elected parliament.
The president disbanded parliament in March, adding to concerns that he has put the only country to emerge from the 2011 Arab Spring with a sustained period of democracy back on a path to autocracy.
“The expansion of the president’s powers to summarily fire judges is a frontal assault on the rule of law,” 10 rights groups said in a statement, accusing him of delivering “a deep blow to judicial independence.”
“Saied has removed whatever autonomy the judiciary in Tunisia still was able to exercise,” said Salsabil Chellali, Tunisia director at Human Rights Watch, one of the signatories.
Amnesty International and Lawyers Without Borders also put their names to the statement, which called for the president to revoke the decree “immediately” and reappoint the judges.
Tunisian judges this week went on strike over Saied’s move.
The president plans to hold a referendum on July 25 — the first anniversary of his power grab — on a new constitution, ahead of elections in December.
The text of that constitution is yet to be presented, after a national consultation exercise that largely failed to spark participation by citizens.
But some Tunisians have welcomed Saied’s moves over the past year, amid deep frustration with a dysfunctional mixed presidential-parliamentary system established in the wake of the 2011 ouster of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
After Saied’s latest decree, the United States said he was following an “alarming pattern” of acting against independent institutions.
Rights groups condemn Tunisia president’s purge terming it ‘deep blow to judicial independence’
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Rights groups condemn Tunisia president’s purge terming it ‘deep blow to judicial independence’
- The June 1 presidential decree saw Saied award himself the power to fire judges, and he duly sacked 57 of them
Israeli FM urges Jews to move to Israel a week after Sydney attack
- “Today I call on Jews in England, Jews in France, Jews in Australia, Jews in Canada, Jews in Belgium: come to the Land of Israel! Come home!” Saar said
JERUSALEM: Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called on Sunday for Jews in Western countries to move to Israel to escape rising antisemitism, one week after 15 were shot dead at a Jewish event in Sydney.
“Jews have the right to live in safety everywhere. But we see and fully understand what is happening, and we have a certain historical experience. Today, Jews are being hunted across the world,” Saar said at a public candle lighting marking the last day of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.
“Today I call on Jews in England, Jews in France, Jews in Australia, Jews in Canada, Jews in Belgium: come to the Land of Israel! Come home!” Saar said at the ceremony, held with leaders of Jewish communities and organizations worldwide.
Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Israeli leaders have repeatedly denounced a surge in antisemitism in Western countries and accused their governments of failing to curb it.
Australian authorities have said the December 14 attack on a Hanukkah event on Sydney’s Bondi Beach was inspired by the ideology of the Islamic State jihadist group.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Western governments to better protect their Jewish citizens.
“I demand that Western governments do what is necessary to fight antisemitism and provide the required safety and security for Jewish communities worldwide,” Netanyahu said in a video address.
In October, Saar accused British authorities of failing to take action to curb a “toxic wave of antisemitism” following an attack outside a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, in which two people were killed and four wounded.
According to Israel’s 1950 “Law of Return,” any Jewish person in the world is entitled to settle in Israel (a process known in Hebrew as aliyah, or “ascent“) and acquire Israeli citizenship. The law also applies to individuals who have at least one Jewish grandparent.zz
