Tunisia: Judicial measures against presidential candidate Mekki

A human rights source confirmed on Friday that the head of the investigative judges in the Tunisian Court of First Instance issued a travel ban, determined the residence and prevented media appearances of the Secretary-General of the Labour and Achievement Party and presidential candidate Abdellatif Mekki.

A defence team member, lawyer Monia Bouali, told Anadolu Agency: “The investigating judge responded to the defence team’s request to delay deliberation of the case to which Mekki is being referred, but he took a number of precautionary measures. Among the precautionary measures is a travel ban and limiting his movement to the Wardia district. The Head of the Investigative Judiciary also decided to prevent Mekki from appearing in the media, even on social media.”

On 2 July, the Tunisian Labour and Achievement Party announced that Mekki received a summons from the Public Prosecution to appear before an investigating judge regarding the death of a former parliamentarian in 2014.

A week before that, the party announced its intention to nominate Mekki, a former minister of health, for the presidential elections in October, in which current President Kais Saied is expected to run.

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The party disclosed in a statement on Tuesday: “Within only five days of the initial announcement of Abdellatif Mekki’s nomination, he received a summons to appear before the investigating judge (public prosecution) on Friday, 12 July, in the case of Jilani Dabboussi’s death.”

The party noted that Mekki would: “Appear with a clear conscience and confident innocence before the judiciary.”

Dabboussi was a businessperson and parliamentarian during the rule of the late President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. He died on 7 May, 2014, hours after his release from the prison in which he had been held since 7 October, 2011, on charges of corruption, embezzlement and nepotism.

In 2019, his family filed a complaint against the Tunisian authorities with the United Nations Human Rights Committee regarding the circumstances of his death after he was detained for 31 months without trial.

The family accused the Tunisian authorities of committing: “Serious violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, neglect and exceeding legal detention periods.”

On 21 June, the investigating judge at the Court of First Instance in Tunis decided to imprison the leader of the Ennahda Movement and former Minister of Justice Nour Al-Din Al-Behairi in the case of Dabboussi’s death.

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