TUNIS, Tunisia

Tunisia’s Ennahda movement has strongly condemned the dismissal of dozens of judges by the country’s president, Kais Saied.

Last week, Saied sacked 57 judges, accusing them of corruption and protecting terrorists.

Among those sacked was Youssef Bouzaker, the former head of the Supreme Judicial Council whose members the Tunisian president replaced this year.

Another prominent judge on the list was Bachir Akremi, whom Saied’s supporters accuse of being too close to the Ennahda Party.

Ennahda “strongly condemns the policy of distortion and systematic intimidation of judges and the dismissal of fifty-seven of them outside the law and the constitution," the movement’s Executive Office said in a statement.

It termed the dismissal as a “new step to control the Judiciary, end the independence of the judicial authority and employ it to strike opponents of the coup and restrict freedoms.”

The movement called on all supporters of freedom, democracy and national sovereignty “to unite their efforts to end the coup and limit its dangerous repercussions after it became a major obstacle to a comprehensive national dialogue to get the country out of its complex crisis."

Tunisia has been in the throes of a deep political crisis since July 25, 2021, when Saied dismissed the government, suspended parliament, and assumed executive authority, in a move decried by opponents as a “coup.” He later dissolved the parliament in March after lawmakers held a session to revoke his measures.

*Writing by Bassel Barakat