(Washington, D.C., 4/1/2022) On March 30th, Tunisian President Kais Saied dissolved the Assembly of the People’s Representatives after the suspended parliament members held a virtual plenary session. In a televised statement, President Saied called the meeting a failed “coup attempt.” After the session concluded, the Minister of Justice asked the attorney general to open a judicial investigation against many parliamentary members who attended the session on charges of “conspiring against state security.” These charges carry the death penalty. Tunisia’s parliament held a virtual session on Wednesday with 124 out of 217 MPs in attendance; 116 of the attendees voted in favor of repealing the unilateral decrees issued by President Saied since his July 25, 2021 seizure of “exceptional powers”–decrees which suspended the parliament, suspended sections of the Constitution, dissolved the Supreme Judicial Council, and ordered its replacement with an “interim” council.
Before the meeting, Saied dismissed the parliamentary meetings as “illegal” and some on social media accused the government of attempting to prevent the parliament from holding the session online by disrupting access to video communication platforms. Reuters journalists reported that “the connection to Zoom and Teams applications had stopped working temporarily shortly before the meeting was due to begin.”
The Tunisian United Network (TUN) is alarmed by today’s news that more than thirty members of parliament, including the speaker Rached Ghannouchi, have been called in for questioning by authorities. TUN previously welcomed the decision of the suspended Tunisian Parliament to hold plenary sessions and called on the Biden Administration and members of the U.S. Congress to urge President Saied to refrain from interfering in the legislative process or hindering the scheduled parliamentary meetings in any way.
Now, TUN calls on the United States’ government and the international community to condemn President Saied’s decision to dissolve the Parliament and recognize the Tunisian People’s Assembly as a legitimate functioning body with a vital, constitutional role as a “check” on the executive branch. Further, TUN calls on the United States to hold President Saied and the Tunisian security forces responsible for the safety of the parliamentarians amid Saied’s accusations that the session equated to a “plot against the internal and external security of the state.”
Per Article 68 of the 2014 Tunisian Constitution, no member of Tunisia’s parliament “may be prosecuted through civil or criminal proceedings, arrested or tried for opinions or propositions presented or for work done in relation to his/her parliamentary functions.” And, according to the emergency section (Article 80) cited by Saied on July 25, 2021 when he justified his suspension of the parliament’s activities, “the President of the Republic cannot dissolve the Assembly of the Representatives of the People” after the emergency measures enter into force. Therefore, the Tunisian authorities must allow the parliament to perform their duties as representatives of the people.
TUN Board Member Hanene Ben Ali stated that
“The courageous members of the Tunisian Parliament who met on Wednesday are doing exactly what we Tunisians have elected them to do and they deserve our support and admiration. We call on the Biden Administration to stand with the parliament and the Tunisian people as they struggle to regain Tunisia’s democracy and its rightful place among the free world.”
Contact: Mongi Dhaouadi | Email: [email protected] | Phone: (860) 514-8038