Relating to the regularization of the situation of businessmen involved in corruption cases
Tunisian President Kais Saied on Monday instructed Justice Minister Laila Jaffal to set up the Criminal Reconciliation Authority with businessmen involved in corruption cases.
This is what emerges from the audience granted on Monday by President Saïed to the Minister of Justice at the Carthage Palace, according to a press release and a video extract broadcast by the Tunisian presidency on its official Facebook page.
The Tunisian President instructed the Minister of Justice to “set up the Instance linked to criminal reconciliation as soon as possible, so that the looted funds return to their legitimate owner, namely the people.”
Saïed had declared on July 28, 2021: “We estimate the money of the country which has been looted at 13.5 billion dinars (about 5 billion dollars), and it must be returned in exchange for a penal arrangement with the men. of business involved in this spoliation.”
He explained, at the time, that “the number of those who robbed the country’s money amounts to 460 people, according to a report published by the National Commission for the Investigation of Bribery and Corruption”, without however giving the names of these people.
On March 22, Tunisia announced the adoption of a “criminal reconciliation” in corruption cases concerning “economic and financial crimes”, in exchange for the recovery of the money, according to a presidential decree published in the Official Journal.
The announced decision offers a settlement and pardon to 460 businessmen involved in corruption cases, for an amount of 13.5 billion dinars (about 5 billion dollars), which would be invested in public projects.
On the same note, the presidential communiqué added, today, that “the president underlined that justice should be at the level of this historic step and that judges should not hesitate to apply the law to everyone, and that there can be no question that, postponement after postponement, rights come to be lost”.
The statement also states that Saïed called for “the judges to apply the law and for the Provisional Superior Council of the Judiciary to fully assume its role and responsibility, not allowing those who do not deserve it to occupy the functions of magistrates without sanction. if it is proven that they are not really honest or responsible.”
Saied said, according to the statement, that “decrees are issued in the name of the people, and the Tunisian state has enough laws to fulfill the will of the people.”
On February 5, Saïed announced, “the dissolution of the Superior Council of the Judiciary” (an independent body created in 2016 to oversee professional matters concerning judges). On the 13th of the same month, the Tunisian president signed a decree creating a “Provisional Superior Council of the Judiciary”.
