Tunisia: Public Prosecution investigates MPs on charges of ‘plotting against the state’

The Public Prosecution in Tunisia announced on Friday that it had initiated a new investigation of MPs on charges of “plotting against the state”.

The Court of First Instance in Tunis stated that the Public Prosecution initiated a new investigation with MPs who participated in an online public session held by the dissolved Parliament at the end of last month.

The statement added that the investigation comes: “Due to charges of forming, engaging and participating in an agreement intending to attack people and property that intends to change the state’s form and provoke chaos,” without providing further details about the number of MPs or their names.

Two weeks ago, dozens of MPs, including Speaker of Parliament Rached Ghannouchi (head of the Ennahda Movement), were referred to the Anti-Terrorism Unit for investigation.

On 30 March, the Assembly of Peoples’ Representative (Parliament) held an online plenary session, during which it voted in favour of abolishing the “exceptional measures” of Tunisian President Kais Saied.

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Hours after the session, Saied announced the dissolution of Parliament on the pretext of “preserving the state and its institutions”, considering that the Parliament meeting and the decisions that it issued were “a failed coup attempt”.

Tunisia has experienced a severe political crisis since 25 July, when Saied began to impose exceptional measures, including suspending Parliament, issuing legislation by presidential decrees and dissolving the Supreme Judicial Council.

Tunisian forces consider these measures a “coup against the Constitution“, while other forces see them as a “correction of the course of the 2011 revolution”, which toppled the former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. According to Saied, his measures are: “In conformity with the Constitution to protect the state from an imminent danger.”