Tunisian presidential candidate faces legal measures

TUNIS, Tunisia

The Tunis First Instance Court has taken precautionary measures against Abdellatif Makki, Secretary-General of the Work and Achievement Party and a presidential candidate, a legal source revealed Friday.

These measures include restricting his travel and defining the area of movement within the vicinity of the capital, Tunis.

Mounia Bouali, a lawyer and member of the defense team, told Anadolu that “while the investigating judge at the Court granted the defense team’s request to delay the proceedings related to Makki, he still implemented several precautionary measures.”

Among these measures, Bouali highlighted the travel ban and the restriction of movement within the jurisdiction of the Werdia district near the capital.

Furthermore, the investigating judge also prohibited Makki from making media appearances, even on social platforms.

On July 2, the Tunisian Work and Achievement Party announced that Makki received a summons from the public prosecutor’s office to appear before an investigating judge regarding the death of a former parliamentarian in 2014.

Just a week prior to this summons, the party had declared its intention to nominate Makki, a former Minister of Health, as a presidential candidate in the upcoming October elections. The current president, Kais Saied, is also expected to participate in the race.

The party said Tuesday in a statement, “Within just five days of our initial announcement of Makki’s candidature, he received a summons to appear before the investigating judge public prosecutor on Friday, July 12, in relation to the case of Jalani Daboussi’s death.”

The party emphasized that Makki would face the judiciary with a clear conscience and confidence.

Daboussi, a businessman and former parliamentarian during the era of the late President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, passed away on May 7, 2014, shortly after his release from prison. He had been incarcerated since Oct. 7, 2011, on charges of corruption, embezzlement, and nepotism.

In 2019, his family filed a complaint with the United Nations Human Rights Committee regarding the circumstances of his death after being held in pretrial detention for 31 months.

The family accused Tunisian authorities of committing “serious violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” including negligence, mistreatment, and exceeding legal detention periods.

On June 21, the investigating judge at the Tunis First Instance Court ordered the imprisonment of Nour El-Din El-Behiri, a prominent figure in the Ennahda Movement and former Minister of Justice, in connection with Daboussi’s death.

• Presidential Election
• Tunisia