Report Written by judge Bechir Akremi
15 obtober 2021
I would first like to start by briefly introducing my professional career, which spanned nearly thirty-four years, its beginning dating back to January 16th 1989, during which I worked for twenty-seven years fighting crime, particularly organized crime with duties focusing on anti terrorism and financial corruption for ten years, starting from 2012 to 2021, five years as an investigative judge of the first rank, one year as an investigative judge of the second rank, four years as a first investigative judge specialized in terrorism cases, seventeen years as a public prosecutor, five years as an assistant prosecutor, Six years as an Assistant Public Prosecutor, four years as Public Prosecutor at the Court of First Instance in Tunis during which I supervised the economic, financial and judicial poles for combating terrorism as they are the exclusive jurisdictional and territorial jurisdiction of the Court of First Instance in Tunis, then one year as a Public Prosecutor for Criminal Affairs, the jurisdiction of international cooperation. I would also note that during the last ten years, I participated in more than fifty training courses inside and outside the country in the field of combating terrorism, money laundering and financial corruption. I was also fortunate enough to teach for 4 years at the Superior institute of lawyers in tunis and have been invited to present multiple lectures at the respective higher institutes of the judiciary in Italy, France, Belgium, Tunisia and Egypt in my specialized field, in addition to several participations as a lecturer in international and national forums.
And I will now explain my struggle, which started in 2013, specifically during my position as a first investigative judge in the Court of First Instance in Tunis, where I was entrusted on February 6 2013 to work on the case of the assassination of the Secretary-General of the United Patriotic Democratic Party Chokri Belaid. We completely succeeded in uncovering all the details of that heinous crime with the help of a police officer who is trained in turn to deal with terrorism cases. We closed the case in April 2014 under the case number 13/26427 and within it all the details of the commission of that crime , planning, financing and implementation. This decision, which was subjected to supreme judicial oversight by the indictment department, which is primarily responsible for monitoring the safety of the investigation judge’s work under the law, and then was subjected to the supervision of the Supreme Court, which is the Court of appeal. These two judicial bodies have recognized the integrity of all investigative work and accordingly the case was referred to the Criminal Chamber of the Court of First Instance in Tunis to prosecute the perpetrators of the assassination, noting that the investigations were kept open in a file that the procedures required dismantling under the number 26427/13 pending the arrest of some of the accused who were at the time fugitives.
Judge Bechir Akremi standing infront of the Scotland Yard building , their mutual cooperation would eventually dismantle dangerous terrorist cells in tunisia.
One of the many meetings that took place at the Eurojust court for international cooperation to insure justice for the victims.
I would like to point out that political parties, while conducting the investigation, namely the United National Democratic Party and the People’s Movement Party sought to influence the normal course of justice and made every effort to impact my judicial decisions through various medias and through the intensification of press seminars filled with personal attacks on my character and the illusion that the investigation was incomplete , they also attempted to sue me multiple times . All of this with the goal that I submit to their political pressure and seeking to force me to file a political accusation against their ideological and political opponents . The case file doesn’t contain any shred of evidence to convict these parties.
I adhere to the independence of my judicial decision, impartiality, and my standing at a distance from all parties, all of these The administrative complaints were void after an in-depth investigation by the General Inspection at the Ministry of Justice and after this case was subjected to inspection by an inspection team from the Ministry of Justice on three occasions by taking a decision to file.
As for the criminal complaints, they ended in finding no issue with the case But those political parties persisted in intensifying media campaigns against me. And publishing malicious complaints in retaliation for my failure to comply with their requests that violate the law.
These political parties continue to intensify complaints. They are slandering me to this day, despite me leaving the investigation office since 2016.
During my work as a first investigative judge in the judicial pole to combat terrorism, I began investigating three important cases with international victims. The first case was related to the terrorist attacks that targeted the Bardo Museum on March 18 2015, which left 23 victims and hundreds wounded of different nationalities.
The specificity of this case is that the same police officer, which was initially assigned to aid in the investigation , was involved in brutal and barbaric torture which harmed the case. After discovering that, I had to withdraw her from the investigation and assign another police officer to handle it after two reports were submitted to the first Public Prosecution against security cadres and frameworks that were involved the first In the case of torture and the second against officials in the Ministry of Interior, namely the Director General of Security Affairs and the General Inspector at the Ministry of Interior, for their involvement in the crime of torture and fraudulent case reports, an investigation was opened in this regard.
These judicial procedures and actions prompted the aforementioned security authorities to harbor hostility towards me since that incident and to take the previously mentioned measures and proceeded to launch a systematic media campaign against me, noting that this case was managed in a professional manner this according to the testimony of the foreign judicial authorities that followed up on the investigation with us through international judicial delegations, These countries are France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Spain, Ireland, England, South Africa and others… Several meetings were held with these foreign judicial authorities at the “Eurojust” office in The Hague, amounting to 13 meetings.
The second case is related to the terrorist attacks that targeted the “Imperial Marhaba” hotel in Sousse on June 26 2015, which left 39 victims, including 30 victims of English citizenship . Despite the difficulty investigating an organized terrorist group, all the perpetrators of the mentioned criminal acts were exposed. This investigation was conducted in the distinguished presence of the English judiciary through the English Supreme Court, which appointed judges to follow up on the case through international judicial delegations despite the lack of experience in this field with the English judiciary system , As well as the presence of the Anti-Terrorism Unit in Britain (Scotland Yard) we were successful and managed to bring justice to the victims.
Despite the success that took place in this case by revealing all its threads, it became clear to us that the security forces that were armed and are concerned with protecting the coastal strip in which the aforementioned target hotel was, have committed a negligence that rises to the level of a crime by not interfering to stop the death of victims- inside the hotel, which prompted us to start arrests against the the security apparatus, which caused a negative reaction from the security authorities against me personally.
A letter directed to the Judge bechir akremi by the ambassador of England highlighting the importance of his work in bringing justice to the families of the victims of the sousse terrorist attacks .
A little extract of the final case file that dismantled the terrorist cell responsible for killing the lawyer and politician chokri belaid.
All these facts made me an opponent of political and security parties.
The third problem is related to the flow of arms from Libya to Tunisia, especially the mountainous regions, and the disclosure of all the elements involved in it.
I wanted to refer to issues of international dimension, and despite the difficulties we encountered during their management, given the unexpected and unprecedented development of terrorist organizations in planning their perpetration from outside and inside the country, we managed to uncover all the parties involved in committing them, and the investigations were concluded and subjected to oversight on appeal and comment, and judgments were issued. Absolutely without raising any criticism. Rather, we were honored by the Supreme Court in Britain and by the Central Anti-Terrorism Center in England on five occasions because these countries respect and sanctify the independence of the judiciary, do not allow and prevent interference in the judiciary work, this unfortunately cannot be said for case of the assassination of the late Chokri Belaid which still is without influence and interference from political parties that sought to prevent it from being dismissed for their personal political interests , these parties keep throwing baseless accusations and delusional ideas that there was a secret cover up , this slander is still ongoing. All the facts and cowardly killers involved in the assassination have been uncovered in the final case file.
On July 2016, a vacancy occurred in the position of the prosecutor of the first instance court in Tunis, so I submitted my candidacy for this plan with twelve judges to the temporary authority of the judicial judiciary, which at that time took over the correspondence of the General Inspection at the Ministry of Justice to ensure that there were no complaints or disciplinary investigations against me that prevented the availability of conditions for my candidacy for this plan, and the answer was received from the General Inspection that there are no complaints or ongoing disciplinary case against me that prevent my candidacy in question, and on the first of August 2016, a vote was taken for my benefit to assume this job plan which included responsibilities managing the economic and financial poles, as well as the judicial pole for combating terrorism, which is an exclusive judicial and territorial jurisdiction, in addition to the public right cases.
During the period of my implementation of that plan, which lasted until September 2020, investigations were conducted on several complex issues that sparked controversy at the national, regional and international levels.
– The corruption case of the first president of the Court of Cassation, or the case of what is known as cassation cases without referral, as on January 7, 2020, I was entrusted by the Judicial Judicial Council to investigate suspicions of corruption surrounding the issuance of two court decisions during the summer of 2019 and by investigating it, it became clear to me that the first president of the Court of Cassation was involved In corruption and that it is related to several court decisions that include financial corruption of businessmen and political parties, noting that the first president of the Court of Appeals is a member of the Supreme Judicial Council, which prompted him, along with some of the members of this council, to plan to remove me from my position as the Public Prosecutor.
– The case of the director general of the competent authorities, Imad Ashour, and the director of the National Counter-Terrorism Unit, Saber al-Ajili, in which the first president of the Court of Cassation and then Prime Minister Youssef Chahed was involved.
– The case of the director general of the technical departments of the Ministry of Interior being involved with political figures in brutal wiretapping outside legal frameworks.
– The case which is known as the “Al-Manihla case” .
-The case of a traffic accident perpetrated by his son, the then Minister of Transport, Anwar Maarouf.
– The case of what was termed in the media and by a political party (the secret apparatus of the Ennahda movement).
– The case of the violent incidents that took place in the people’s Parliament.
All of these along with other cases that were handled by the Republic Agency, are issues related to state security, and I am currently reluctant to mention their details for considerations that I, in turn, cannot mention, but they were one of the reasons in addition to what I mentioned previously, for an alliance of judicial, financial, political, partisan and media corruption lobby to take revenge on me as I adhered to the independence of the judicial decision and its neutrality.
These cases prompted a financial, judicial and political corruption lobby to plan to remove me from the my position as a Public Prosecutor at the Court of First Instance in Tunis in August 2020. This removal was accompanied by a frantic media campaign launched by political parties that kept harboring hostility towards me for my investigation of the case of the assassination of Chokri Belaid, as well as security unions and political parties associated with the financial and judicial corruption lobby, which is what ended up happening since members of the Judicial Council were involved in this conspiracy.
An extract of one of the Administrative court decisions . All of the decisions are available below .
An extract of one of the Administrative court decisions . All of the decisions are available below
The decision to disqualify from the aforementioned position issued by the Judicial Council to the Administrative Court concerned with monitoring the decisions of this council was appealed by both parties and a decision was issued on December 31, 2020 under No…214310. It decided to cancel the removal decision from the public prosecutor’s plan and consider it an illegitimate decision that deviated from the authority as It was issued under the influence of political parties and the court considered that the Judicial Council had deviated from its authority , this decision dated 13 april 2021 and under the number 319689 and in turn the council was informed , so that the latter appealed the decision of the administrative Court but the appeal was rejected. The Judicial Council was informed and ordered to return me to my original position but they illegally didn’t comply.
After I was illegally removed from the public prosecutor’s office, political parties pushed for the formation of a disciplinary file against me, and the old administrative complaints were revived, which date back to my period of investigation into the case of the assassination of the late Chokri Belaid, which at the time was unable to be preserved. These complaints were submitted again by the party The United National Democratic Party and ended with my referral to the Disciplinary Board, despite my insistence that the complaints mentioned are of a purely malicious nature and were decided on before and ruled in my favor, but the political authorities that control the joints of the general inspection of the Ministry of Justice refused to return to the outcome of those previous complaints and during the month of July of the year 2021 and during my appearance before the Disciplinary Council ,Political parties launched a wide media campaign that accompanied the work of the Disciplinary Council, while I was committed to the duty of reservation, and that campaign ended with the issuance of a decision by the Judicial Council on July 13, 2021 to suspend me from work and refer my file to the Public Prosecution.
As this case was appealed to the Administrative Court, which issued a judgment on January 20, 2022 under No. 215183, to annul the decision of the Judicial Judiciary Council entirely as it was an illegitimate decision. The latter was informed and proceeded to appeal , The court issued its final ruling on June 2, 2022 under number 320548, rejecting the appeal in the first place and supporting the decision to cancel, meaning that the decision of the Judicial Council is void. This ruling binds all parties.
I would also like to mention that on July 29, 2021, the Minister of Interior, with the permission of the President of the State, issued an illegal decision to place me under house arrest in order to humiliate me and further abuse me which lasted until the end of September. I would also like to note that since my suspension from work on July 13, 2021, my family and I have been deprived of my monthly salary and health coverage, knowing that my son is studying outside the country and has no source of income, just as my daughter is pursuing her university education, and I am without a source of income.
I address this call for aid to all concerned national and international organizations to intervene in order to put an end to this tragic injustice and protect me , noting that I refrained from mentioning some details due to considerations related to my safety.
All judgments and administrative decisions cited are available .
Signature Akremi Bechir.
