Tunisia’s Supreme Judicial Council announced that its members will continue to carry out their duties despite President Kais Saied’s decree to end their privileges.
This comes following a decree by Saied to put an end to the grants and privileges granted to members of the Supreme Judicial Council.
The Supreme Judicial Council is a constitutional body monitoring the proper functioning of the judiciary.
The head of the council, Youssef Bouzacher said that the constitution grants the council “self-management” and hopes that this presidential order will not put pressure on the Supreme Judicial Council.
Bouzacher said the council will present its opinion on the decree noting that the constitutional structure of the judiciary cannot be compromised.
Concerns have been raised in Tunisia recently regarding the independence of the judiciary in light of Saied’s statements that the judiciary is a function of the state and his allusion to the dissolution of the Supreme Judicial Council.
On July 25, Tunisia’s Saied deposed the government, suspended parliament, and assumed executive authority. He insisted that the “exceptional measures” were intended to “save” the country, but critics accuse him of planning a “coup.”
