Tunisia: 14 officials arrested on suspicion of corruption in phosphate sector

Tunisian authorities yesterday arrested 14 officials and issued arrest warrants for three others, including a former minister of industry, on suspicion of financial and administrative corruption in the phosphate sector.

In a statement, the spokesman for the economic and financial judicial office, Mohsen Al-Dali, said: “Permission was given to arrest 14 suspects and issue arrest warrants against three others  who are on the run over suspicions of financial and administrative corruption regarding the extraction and transportation of phosphate.”

He explained that a former under-secretary at the Ministry of Industry, a state observer at the Ministry of Finance, the director of the mines department at the Ministry of Industry, the director of purchases and two former general managers of the Gafsa Phosphate Company (CPG), and four managers of outsourcing companies, including two siblings of an MP, had all been arrested.

Al-Dali added that a former minister of industry, a former deputy, and a former CEO are wanted for arrest.

On Tuesday, travel bans were placed on 12 suspects on suspicion of financial and administrative corruption in the same case.

READ: Tunisia president vows to cleanse political arena through legal means 

On 2 August, Tunisian President Kais Saied vowed to oversee the prosecution of parties (unnamed) involved in disrupting phosphate production and transportation.

Tunisia, which was one of the most prominent exporters of phosphate in the world before the 2011 revolution that ended the rule of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, has resorted lately to buying phosphate due to disruptions in the production and transportation of the substance, as a result of mass protests.

The country’s production of phosphates reached 8.2 million tonnes in 2010, but fell to 3.1 million tonnes last year.

On Sunday 25 July, Saied announced that he had decided to freeze the work of Parliament, lift the immunity of all deputies, take over the Public Prosecution office, and dismiss Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi following the eruption of protests in several cities.

Saied added that he would take over the executive authority with the help of a new prime minister whose name has not been announced. Justifying the measures as being necessary in order to “save Tunisia”.

The majority of the country’s political parties slammed the move as a “coup against the constitution” and the achievements of the 2011 revolution.