{"id":33929,"date":"2017-07-18T18:03:54","date_gmt":"2017-07-18T16:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/33929-tunisia-plans-amnesty-for-corrupt-public-employees.html"},"modified":"2017-07-18T18:03:54","modified_gmt":"2017-07-18T16:03:54","slug":"tunisia-plans-amnesty-for-corrupt-public-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/33929-tunisia-plans-amnesty-for-corrupt-public-employees.html","title":{"rendered":"Tunisia plans amnesty for corrupt public employees"},"content":{"rendered":"

With many of its articles removed, Tunisia\u2019s law on \u201ceconomic reconciliation\u201d looks likely to be adopted by parliament in the coming days. But the text is still imperfect and remains controversial.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0Two years ago, on July 14, 2015, President Beji Caied Essebsi presented to the cabinet his proposed law on \u201cSpecial measures concerning reconciliation in the the economic and financial field\u201d. This Bill was submitted to parliament shortly afterwards, but has continued to raise protest, not only in parliament but also on the streets and amongst national and international organizations. One of the fiercest civil society opponents has been Manich Msamah (\u201cI will not forgive\u201d), a group of young people who have organized dozens of demonstrations throughout the country to protest against \u201cthe law whitewashing the corrupt\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the current context where Prime Minister Youssef Chahed is waging a campaign against corruption and contraband, the draft law has nevertheless been sent back to the parliamentary legislative committee for the third time. A consensus between the two parties in power seems to have been found and so, two years after being submitted to parliament, the law looks about to be adopted.<\/p>\n

Initial text transformed<\/h3>\n

Given the resistance to the law, it has during recent parliamentary debates been emptied of many of its provisions. But even so, it still draws criticism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The law is in fact made up of three parts: amnesty for public employees facing court action for financial misdeeds and misappropriating public funds; \u201creconciliation\u201d with businessmen accused of corruption; and amnesty for abuses linked to exchange rate dealings.<\/p>\n

Civil society activist Oumayma Mehdi, project assistant for the parliamentary observatory project of NGO Al Bawsala (\u201ccompass\u201d), has been following closely the debates on this Bill. \u201cIt was quickly decided in parliament to take out the last part, which has no place in this initiative, and put it soon in a separate law on exchange dealing amnesty,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The aspect most opposed by civil society is reconciliation with corrupt businessmen. It was street protests, mostly organized by young activists of Manich Msamah where slogans were chanted against corruption, that got this article removed from the law. In fact, only the provisions relating to public employees have been maintained in the version currently being debated. The initial text has been so transformed that MPs are suggesting its name be changed to the law on \u201cadministrative amnesty\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut even with only that part left, the law is still problematic,\u201d says Oumayma Mehdi. \u201cThat is why Al Bawsala has opposed it from the outset.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gifts in kind<\/h3>\n

\u201cThey did not gain reward from services rendered to businessmen close to the government, even if those services broke the law,\u201d argues the presidential office in defence of amnesty for public employees and people in associated posts, i.e. ministers, secretaries of State, ministerial advisors, ambassadors, judges, governors.<\/p>\n

But how can it be proven that they did not get a reward, especially since the authorities\u2019 thank-you gifts in kind take many forms, such as keeping public employees in post against their bosses\u2019 advice, and awarding study grants for their children.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can you define and quantify the reward?\u201d adds Oumayma Mehdi. \u201cThe Reconciliation Commission that the law proposes to set up does not have the means to access the archives, nor to conduct investigations.\u201d In addition, there is nothing to force amnestied public employees to participate in public hearings to explain their case.<\/p>\n

Jurist Farah Hachad is particularly critical of this. \u201cPeople amnestied will not have to go before the Reconciliation Commission to confess and explain the cases in which they are implicated,\u201d she says. \u201cBut this information is key to understanding the mechanisms of corruption, and could help corroborate facts in more important cases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Risk of repetition<\/h3>\n

In an October 2015 \u201cinterim Opinion<\/a>\u201d on the President\u2019s proposed law, the Venice Commission \u2013 a Council of Europe consultative body on constitutional law \u2013 was categorical. \u201cThe procedure before the Reconciliation Commission does not permit the achievement of one of the objectives of transitional justice, namely reform of the institutions,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

The proposed law neglects victims and is too generous to people who used their power to undermine the law, according to many of its opponents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposed law would guarantee impunity to those who misused public funds in the past,\u201d says Salwa El Gantri, Tunis bureau director of the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ).<\/p>\n

The current climate of consensus between the two big parties in power means there is a good chance the revised Bill will be approved before the end of this parliamentary session on July 24.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With many of its articles removed, Tunisia\u2019s law on \u201ceconomic reconciliation\u201d looks likely to be adopted by parliament in the coming days. But the text is still imperfect and remains controversial. \u00a0Two years ago, on July 14, 2015, President Beji Caied Essebsi presented to the cabinet his proposed law on \u201cSpecial measures concerning reconciliation in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":67342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"ji_location":[2521],"class_list":["post-33929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reconciliation","ji_location-tunisia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTunisia plans amnesty for corrupt public employees - JusticeInfo.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/33929-tunisia-plans-amnesty-for-corrupt-public-employees.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tunisia plans amnesty for corrupt public employees\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With many of its articles removed, Tunisia\u2019s law on \u201ceconomic reconciliation\u201d looks likely to be adopted by parliament in the coming days. 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