The weekly newsletter from 16 to 22 October
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Egypt
The second chamber of the legislature The 1/3 appointed members by the President, the 1/3 which represents the loyalty, joins the 2/3 appointed members under the pretext of elections
Concerning the Legislature, the official newspaper published the decision of the president, Abdel Fattah Al Sisi no.590 of 2020 for the appointment of 100 members in the Senate. In the first session of the Senate, Chancellor, Abdel Wahab Abdel Razeq, the head of Nation’s Future Party, was elected as the Speaker of the Senate Previously, Chancellor Abdel Wahab had judicial positions, including the presidency of the Supreme Constitutional Court, as in March 2018, one of its prominent judgement was to continue implementing the agreement to redraw the maritime borders between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which included the ceding of the islands of Tiran and Sanafir.
During the opening session of the Senate, the Speaker of the Senate, Abdel Wahab Abdel Razeq, declared that Bahaa El-Din Abu Shoka, the head of Al Wafd party and the journalist, Phoebe Fawzy who is a member in the the People’s Republic party, were elected for the two seats of the Senate’s undersecretary. He explained that the number of the voters reached 294 of a total of 300 representatives and 281 of them were valid and 13 were void.
Thus, Abu Shoka violated Article no.252 of the Egyptian constitution which stipulated that “ a Senate member cannot be a member of the House of Representatives at the same time”. It is noted that the Bureau of the House of Representatives did not meet to decide on the resignation request that he formally submitted a few hours earlier.
The Human Rights Bulletin in Egypt: Putting obstacles against Civil Society through law and prison
les in order to issue the final approval of the regulation, according to the Cabinet’s statement.
The new law represents a real danger against Civil Society as it tightens the conditions for establishing associations, and imposes severe restrictions on funding And it sets one year as a deadline for all local and international organizations to settle its legal situations. Thus, tens and hundreds of organizations would face dissolution.
The new law ignored the initiatives of the Egyptian civil society, even the proposed bill of the Ministry of Social Solidarity. In its last version, the new law added imprisonment penalties instead of fines As a result, dangerous scenarios are expected regarding the future of civil society in Egypt.
Sarcasm from justice in Egypt: Pre-trial detention and execution became numbers…
In an attempt that represents a new stab against the guarantees for fair trial and the necessity of a direct contact among the accused person, its lawyer and the judge which leads for further violations on the rights of the accused person and lawyer, Counselor Omar Marawan, Minister of Justice, and Dr. Amr Talaat, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, witnessed the inauguration of the first phase of the project to renew remote pretrial detention that links the New Cairo Court and the prisons of Tora General Prison, the 15th of May Prison and Al Nahda Central Prison.
Meanwhile, Egypt continues death penalty. The Prison Service Authority executed 8 prisoners, including a woman inside the Minya maximum security prison as an implementation for final rulings due to their criminal crimes.
With the continuity of violence and killing by the name of law, Egypt lives in a continuous news of severe killing of citizens. It is noted that the Public Prosecution is investigating the murder of a girl in Maadi suburb. The initial investigations show that the accused persons who were driving a private car, dragged the victim along and then escaped. The Public Prosecution demanded the detectives to quickly uncover the mystery of the murder, arrest the accused persons, and bring them before the prosecution.
The Egyptian civil society activists A typical examples of the victims as a result of violating the law and the violence of the regime
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information reported that its human rights lawyer Amr Imam started his second year of (solitary confinement) for being accused in one of the many fabricated cases, which is Case No. 488 of 2019 of the State Security. In this case, he was a lawyer who plays his role in defending freedom of expression prisoners then he became an accused person and the reason isn’t for committing any crime, but rather for criticizing the National Security Agency and its officers, then a series of torture took place against the human rights lawyer.
Since he was arrested in front of his home on the 16th of October of 2019 after posting on his Facebook account, his condemnation against arresting and assaulting the journalist Esraa Abdel Fattah and his solidarity with her. He was arrested on the same day and he was turned down for being a lawyer to be a freedom of expression prisoner without any reason or evidence except because of the anger and resentment of the National Security Authority from his opinions.
The Criminal Court in the East of Alexandria, renewed the imprisonment against the human rights lawyer, Mohamed Ramadan for 45 days pending investigations in case no.16567 of 2018 of the administration of Al-Muntazah I, which is known as the “ Yellow Vests”. It also renewed the imprisonment of Sameh Melegy for 45 days pending investigations in case no.4143 of 2020 of the misdemeanor of Al Muntazah I.
As for the Egyptian film producer Moataz Abdel Wahab and the activist Ahmed Maher “ Rigo”, they were put in a new case after 2 weeks from the decision to release them without any implementation as the Criminal Court in the 5th of October, decided to release them while the Public prosecution didn’t appeal the decision.
In addition to the systematic policy of the “ revolving doors” against activists and opposition, the regime tends to harass the families and the colleagues of the targeted persons.
The security forces arrested two assistants of the Egyptian journalist Khaled Al-Balshi, as well as his brother, on charges of “belonging to a banned group” and “spreading false news”. The Reporters Without Borders’ statement considered that as a “heinous means of pressure” by targeting the relatives and colleagues of Al-Balshi, considering that they only target this well-known prominent journalist.
Egypt ranked 166 out of 180 countries in n the World Press Freedom
The source: Reporters without Borders’ Organization
Although repression blocks the aspirations of the people and the organized work, it continues as well as the steadfastness of the prisoners and detainees. During the first half of October 2020, the Social Movements Monitor counted 12 protests, including 7 labor and professional protests, and 5 social protests. Hundreds of prisoners in Al-Istikbal Prison in the Torah Complex in Cairo have also started to strike, according to two different sources who spoke to Mada Masr and one of them a human rights defender who follows the file.
the Ministry of Interior has not issued any statements in this regard yet, the two sources mentioned that a force from the Prisons Sector Investigation has launched a campaign over the past two weeks to strip prisoners from all their personal belongings at least in two of the four prison buildings. They just left two blankets and prison suits for each prisoner, besides banning the walking exercise or using their saved money, and the closure of the place designated for the purchase of food and drinks (also known as the canteen) and the clinic. Also, at least two prisoners were transferred to the disciplinary cells after attacking and stripping them of all their clothes except for their underwear due to their refusal for the campaign.
The human rights source estimates that the percentage of prisoners who participates in refraining from receiving the daily food supplied by the prison administration is about 70% of the prisoners, despite the fact that most of them rely mainly in recent months on the provided food by the prison administration due to the lack of visits and not allowing all food which is brought by their relatives to enter.
Defamation Methods: A New Old Too
The Egyptian State Television broadcast a leak of a telephone conversation between Minister of Information, Osama Haykal and Sayed Al-Badawi, the former head of the Egyptian Wafd Party, in which they talk about attending a meeting with political forces, including the Muslim Brotherhood, which the Egyptian government classifies as a terrorist group.
Wael Al-Ibrashi, the tv presenter of the program who broadcast the recording, said: “Haykal raised the slogan of destroying the state media and serving the media of the Muslim Brotherhood”. According to Egyptian journalist Hafez Al-Marazi, this recording dates back to 2011, when Heikal was working as editor-in-chief of the Al-Wafd Party Gate. As Al-Merazi said in his Facebook page: “Very unfortunate, that the Egyptian ‘state’ television is degenerating to the point of broadcasting illegal recordings of a party leader, and he doesn’t commit any crime but expresses his anger.”
During the past years, many Egyptian media broadcast leaked phone calls to distort opponents, but this is the first time to use this mechanism against a prominent official in the government.
In a letter to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, 56 members of the US Congress called for the immediate release of human rights defenders, lawyers, political activists, and journalists in Egypt, as well as stopping the use of pretrial detention except in cases of necessity, in line with recommendations of the United Nations and other organizations to avoid endangering the lives of prisoners due to overcrowding inside prisons at the time of the Corona pandemic.
Despite these international demands that join the free voices of the Egyptian civil society, the voice of the Egyptian regime’s repression remains the dominant despite the resistance and the daily continuous struggle under a critical economic and social situation, which the regime’s failed policies are the reason for that. It is noted that the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights has criticized the government’s plan to reduce energy subsidies from 2014 until now, which was characterized by a poor plan, due to the lack of transparency, which caused severe social and economic impacts on the living standard of the poor and middle-income families, and the economic activities of a large number of them.
Meanwhile, The numbers of death among doctors are growing :
Libya
The details of the Libyan dialogue path are in the front of the political arena in Libya under the local and foreign paths that are taking place during these days to bridge the gap among the Libyans and prepare a solid ground through in order to build a new political agreement that unifies Libya during the past two years.
During the meeting of the United Nations Mission with a group of Libyan youth, the youth tend to be organized, structured and to present their opinion on the Libyan crisis while thinking on creating an alternative that builds a new future for Libya.
The Libyan crisis encouraged several youth groups in the country to the forefront of events, searching for a solution to end the war and the transitional period, and calling for their participation in the meetings sponsored by the UN mission and in forefront, the Forum for Political Dialogue that would be held in Tunisia at the beginning of next month.
More than a hundred young people who signed what they called the “Toyoh’s Document” stressed “not accepting the restoration of the presence of the characters who were resulted from the Skhirat Agreement, which did not achieve any success”. They called upon the UN mission in Libya to “represent at least 25 young men in the next dialogue path, while Taking into consideration the cultural diversity, people with special needs and women. Toyoh is a small town in the south of Libya where the activities of the “first youth conference”, which lasted for two days and ended with a final statement entitled “What should be in the path of the Libyan dialogue?”
This happened while the UN mission began an interactive dialogue with Libyan youth through closed dialogue rooms. Ahmed Al-Touati, one of the conference organizers and the signatories of the document, said that they propose the formation of a “mini-crisis government with limited powers” as a quick solution to the crisis until holding elections in the country. He added that its tasks are limited to unifying the state’s executive institutions, putting in the necessary arrangements for holding the electoral process, and ending Crises of electricity, fuel and funds.
He added that the document was handed over to the UN envoy, Stephanie Williams. He said: “despite the leaks that indicate that the mission closed the door to any other additions regarding the preparations for the forum, we shall exert pressure so that the articles of the document are present in the next political agreement. And we would demonstrate peacefully, if our demands for a wider representation of youth and woman in the forum, were not responded to.
He noted that these two groups “are the largest in Libyan society, and the most affected by the conflict over the past ten years, so they are concerned with the future and the country’s stability as they are worried about producing projects which are similar to Skhirat” He stressed that “it is stupid to repeat the same mixture twice and expect a different result. We tried to prove that only the youth are able to gather from all parts of Libya without the need for someone who brings and gather us”.
Toyoh’s document: “A group of young people in the East, West and South Libya, from Arabs, Berbers, Tuaregs, and Tebu, decided to meet despite the catastrophes, in order to create a space for dialogue among them, and to produce a document to create a real vision that enables them to collect views, in an attempt to find a Fertile ground to unify the efforts in this path ”. “ Young people who did not participate in the conference and would like to sign the document are welcomed … and the list of names that the document contains is not final ”
To ensure transparency, the document proposed that the next government provide the necessary reports on its work progress, expenditures and achievements, in addition to not being authorized to ratify any contracts that entail financial obligations on the state.
Akram Al-Najjar who is one of the conference organizers said that, “there is great communication with us, whether from the UN Mission or groups of young people who want to join us.”
He added to “Al-Sharq al-Awsat” that the document “is considered the first written youth product during the past ten years, and we believe that this was what we were missing in Libya, as there was no vision that would gather us”
He added, “due to the current circumstances and the paths of dialogue that have started recently, we discussed that we may find ourselves facing a crisis again, similar to what happened after Skhirat by reproducing the same characters that brought us to an armed conflict” and this is what prompted all groups of the Libyan youth, from Amazigh, Tuareg and Tebu, to meet”. He pointed out that they allowed the youth who are involved in the armed groups to participate in their meeting, justifying that by “we need to listen to their voices, and we have succeeded in reaching some positive points that would add present a benefit to the next dialogue path.”
He concluded that “the youth group is the most keen to end the transitional period in the country, because they are the most affected at present due to the widespread looting of public funds in the country, which raised the number of unemployed persons”.
The UN Envoy in Libya: Despite the local and abroad movements, “ i am somewhat optimistic”
Ion Tuesday, October 20, 2020, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya announced the recommendations which were made by the participants in the Libyan Youth Path, as part of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum process that would be held at the beginning of the next month in Tunisia. It noted that the Libyan Youth Path is part of the mission’s efforts to ensure full participation of youth and the rest of the components in the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum. The mission organized the first meeting of the Libyan Youth Path on Sunday, the 8th of October of 2020 via video call, with the presence of 41 participants and the participation of young activists and representatives of youth associations from different orientations and regions in Libya
The mission stated in its statement that a number of its experts presented in the meeting “the latest developments in the military path in the 5+5 committee, formally named the 5+5 Libyan Joint Military Commission, the economic path, and the human rights path, so that young people are aware of the latest developments and the efforts of the mission in the various paths. It added that the young participants stressed, “in their treatises, the importance of holding elections in a suitable schedule, calling for real participation of young people in the all paths of dialogues, and in the institutions that would be resulted from the next dialogue, stressing the importance of the role of women.”
The youth’s views and recommendations included “the importance of transitional justice and upholding the law enforcement authority, combating corruption, unifying institutions, achieving national reconciliation, returning the enforced displaced persons, achieving development, encouraging small and medium enterprises, preserving the rights of persons with disabilities, and compensating those who were affected by wars and successive crises.”
The recommendations also addressed “the abolition and dismantling of all armed groups, and the reintegration of their members into unified military and security institutions, while ensuring the implementation of the security sector reform program in Libya”, according to the mission statement.
The Foreign intervention in Libya: A balanced and effective element in every expected direction
On the level of the military path, Williams confirmed, on Wednesday the 21th of October of 2020, that the new agreements between the two military delegations, the Libyan Government of National Accord which resulted from the Skhirat Agreement and the “National Army” led by Khalifa Haftar, in the last round of the talks of 5+5 Libyan Joint Military Commission in Geneva, include the reopening of roads and domestic flights, and facilitating communication among regions in order to find solutions to the detainees’ issue.
Air navigation between the capital, Tripoli, and the eastern city of Benghazi is scheduled to resume at the end of this week. The two parties also agreed to “continue the current state of calm on the battle fronts and avoid any military escalation”. Besides taking steps to restructure the Petroleum Facilities Guard to ensure the continued flow of oil.
The United Nations mission considered that Sarraj’s resignation could contribute positively to ending the transitional period. However, Stephanie Williams also expressed her “somewhat optimism” concerning the possibility of achieving a permanent ceasefire in Libya as she praised the atmosphere of “seriousness and commitment” that prevailed in the Geneva negotiations. The UN official condemned the foreign interventions in the Libyan conflict, calling on that countries to “remove their hands” from Libya.
In the Human rights bulletin: Libya is a land for the tragedy of migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and the perpetrators of official and armed groups officials
In the capital, Tripoli, the Libyan authorities arrested Abdel Rahman Milad who is wanted by Interpol, on charges of human trafficking.
The internationally recognized government (GNA) announced the arrest of Milad who is known as “Al Baidja” as he was accusded of “human trafficking, migrant and fuel smuggling.”
by the Public Prosecution to him relating to Milad was the head of the coast guard in the city of Zawiya, which is known for its abuse of migrants and the use of violence against them, according to UN reports. Experts from a UN committee said in 2017 that Milad and other members of the coast guard force were involved in sinking boats while carrying migrants. He was also accused of forming a migrant detention center in Zawiya, where they were ill-treated. He is accused of collaborating in smuggling fuel.
A report that was issued by the UN Security Council in June 2018 revealed that Milad was leading a human smuggling group in Libya, and was involved in torturing migrants and committing human rights violations.
- Source: International Office for Migration
The missing persons: A painful title to Libya’s recent past without accountability or punishment
On Sunday, the 8th of 2020, the General Authority for Search and Identification of Missing Persons of the Libyan government announced the discovery of 5 mass graves in Tarhuna. The spokesman for the General Authority for Search and Identification of Missing Persons, Abdulaziz Al-Jaafari, indicated that the search teams discovered five mass graves, stressing that the number of bodies that have been exhumed from the discovered graves reached 12, and they belong to men.
The Number of bodies which were discovered in June in Tarhuna, in Al-Rabet project area:
That requires archiving the crimes and the accountability of the responsible ones, so that the Libyan people can close critical and sensitive files that could affect the path of transition and the unity of the Libyan people
Abduction: a continuous way between the Libyan parties
The media message in Libya remains politicized and contested by all parties, and kidnapping or assassinating may be required. This is confirmed by past evidences
Several sources in Tripoli confirmed the abduction of the head of the Libyan Media Foundation, Mohamed Baiyou, after publishing a recording of a phone call with the commander of the so-called “Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigade” Ayoub Abu Ras. He said on his social media page that it was a “threatening message”, then he wrote another tweet saying that: “Criminals are attacking my house now in Tripoli,” and the “Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigade” page published a picture of Baiyou and appeared behind the Brigade’s logo, indicating that he is in one of its headquarters.
On 10/9/2020, the head of the Presidency Council of the Government of National Accord, Faiz Al-Sarraj, issued a decision appointing the journalist Muhammad Baiyou as the head of the Libyan Media Foundation. This decision raised controversy by some media professionals, activists and those who describe themselves as “February revolutionaries”. The controversy took place in the Presidency Council itself, as a member of the Presidency Council of the Government of National Accord, Mohammed Amari Zayed, considered the appointment decision “illegal” and demanded to rescind the decree.
A member of the Presidency Council of the Government of National Accord, Dr. Muhammad Ammari Zayed, announced, on Tuesday, that the necessary judicial measures would be taken to appeal the decision of the Presidency Council to appoint Baiyou to the presidency of the Libyan Media Foundation, describing the decision as “illegal”. Ammari said in statements carried by the “ Borkan Al Ghadab: Volcano of Anger” page on “Facebook” describing “the crime of aggression against Tripoli as a civil war” is a falsification of facts, a stab to the legitimacy of the battle of the GNA, and an insult to our military leaders and our righteous martyrs.
In turn, the commander of the Sirte-Al-Jufra operations room, Brigadier Ibrahim Bait Al-Mal, called on the Presidential Council to withdraw the decision to appoint Muhammad Baiyou as the head of the Libyan Media Foundation. He pointed out that the latter issued an order to media channels to describe the aggression against Tripoli as a civil war, and ordered the removal of the Volcano of Anger logo from official channels.
Bait Al Mal pointed out in a statements which were published by “Borkan al-ghadab: Volcano of Anger”, that Baiyou ordered the media channels and the official Libyan News Agency to “completely stop broadcasting and publishing everything related to the aggression against Tripoli or what he describes as a civil war. Aso, he threatened the directors of channels and radio to take the necessary procedures against them” if they didn’t abide his orders. Bait Al Mal said that Baiyou finally issued a decision to assign a media figure who is against the February revolution and close to the war criminal Haftar, and he gave him the task of managing programs and visual production at Al-Watania channel.
In a statement, the representative of the Presidential Council of the Government of National Accord, Abdelsalam Kagman, called on the Head of the Accountability Chief of Staff and the central governor of Libya and the ministers of interior and finance to stop the decision of the President of the Presidency Council to assign Baiyou to head the Libyan Media Foundation, and consider it as if it did not exist.
Kagman said that decision No. 598 of 2020 was issued in contravention of the Libyan Political Agreement for not presenting the draft decision to the representatives and agreeing on it as stipulated in Paragraph 3 of Article 1 of the Accord Government section of the Political Agreement.
Tunisia
Concerning the Parliament, the new Bureau of the House of Representatives together with the three representatives of the Presidency of the bureau, and they are Rached Ghannouchi, the speaker of the House of the Representatives, Samira Al Chaouachi, the first deputy of the Speaker and Tareq Al-Fatitti, the second deputy , would be formed from the following representatives of the Parliamentary blocs:
- The Ennahda bloc would be represented by three representatives and they are Maher Maziob who would be in charge of media and communication, Nofal Al Gamaly who would be in charge of budget control , and Jamila Al-Kiskisi who is in charge of the relationship with civil society and the citizen.
- Regarding the Democratic bloc, it would be represented by Samia Abbou who is in charge of the relationship with the government and the representative, Khalid Al Koraishi who is in charge of the affairs of Tunisians abroad.
- Also, the representative Abeer Mousa would represent the Free Constitutional Party bloc who is in charge of the affairs of the representatives. And the representative, Sofian Tobal would represent the Heart of Tunisia bloc in the Bureau and would be in charge of foreign relations. And also, the Dignity Coalition bloc would be represented by Abd Al-Latif Al-Olwy who is in charge of legislation in the Bureau of the Parliament.
- And as for the National bloc, it would be represented by the representative, Mabrouk Korshid who is in charge of the relationship with the Judiciary and the Constitutional bodies. And the representative, Hafez Alzowari would represent the Reform bloc and would be in charge of ..........
Next Friday is the last deadline for submitting candidatures, which enables the blocs to change their candidates for the membership in the new Bureau of tAssembly of the Representatives of the People of Tunisia during this parliamentary year.
The legislative work: The budget and bills that are far from the constitution and its principles
Meanwhile, the state’s draft budget of 2021 was submitted on Wednesday, the 14th of October 2020, which is 24 hours before the end of the constitutional deadlines. This budget comes in light of economically and financially difficult numbers:
- The size of the state budget for the year 2021: 52 billion and 600 million dinars
- An increase in the budget: 4 percent compared to the 2020 updated results
- Decrease in state tax revenues in 2020: about 6 billion dinars,
- Expenditure increase: about 2 billion dinars.
- The value of expenditures in the state budget in 2021: 3 billion dinars, excluding debts
- The total amount which is allocated for development: 7 billion dinars
- Project financing: 1.5 billion dinars out of 7 billion for development
- Public debt: 15.7 billion dinars
On another level, the session was adjourned on Tuesday, the 20th of October of 2020, before starting to consider the draft law which is related to the revision of Decree no.116. And the session could not be held again, except after the meeting of the Parliament to set a new date,as its first decision was set for October 20. It is noted that the media and press sectors have called on its activists and supporters to refuse to pass the aforementioned proposal due to its danger to freedom of expression and freedom of the press.
The abuse of power and influence reappears, as it is related to the House of Representatives, after a period of intentionally making the case absent The financial department of the Public Prosecution opened an investigation against all those whom the search would reveal regarding the masks deal, according to Article 96 of the Criminal Code related to the investigation of the corruption of a Civil servant for gaining a benefit whether for himself or for others and causing harms on the administration.
This case is concerning a mask deal between a company run by a member of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People and the Ministry of Industry in the resigned government of Ilyas Fakhfakh. And the investigation would include, the former Minister of Industry, Saleh bin Yusef, MP Jalal Al-Zayati, and others according to the development of the investigation.
In the same context, the indictment chamber of the Nabeul Appeal Court decided to appeal the decision to end the investigation in the case of MP Zuhair Makhlouf which was issued by the First Instance Court in Nabeul, who was charged with assaulting good morals and indecent publicity. It updated the charges against him by accusing him of sexual harassment. It also upholds the decision to conclude the investigation regarding declaring shameful behavior, as was confirmed by Naima Shabouh, the lawyer for the affected girl.
The aforementioned lawyer explained that the indictment chamber of the Nabeul Appeal Court referred the accused person with the two charges of sexual harassment and indecent publicity to the Misdemeanor Council of the Court of First Instance in Nabeul.
Democracy in Tunisia: Is it without democrats?
Regarding the general political scene, it is a scene which is dominated by political disputes, especially in light of the health and economic crisis in the country. On the partisan level, Ennahda is witnessing a struggle during this time over the possibility of extending the presidential term of the movement’s president, Rached Ghannouchi. The leader of the Ennahda Movement, Muhammad bin Salem, who is one from the group of the hundred who sent the first message to the head of the movement, confirmed that the reason for sending the second message was due to the ignorance of the first message and the absence of an official response from the movement’s leader, Rashid Ghannouchi. And there is an answer which he described as inappropriate from the circles close to Ghannouchi.
He stressed the law enforcement and then considered if there is a defect, then it would be changed. He also stressed that imposing the extension and the presidency for life would strike democracy within the movement, according to him. Bin Salem stated that it is unacceptable to not be abided by the law due to the ambition of the leader of the movement, Rashid Ghannouchi, to run for the next presidential elections. He added that Ghannouchi has the right to run in the upcoming presidential elections as any Tunisian citizen, but if he is going to enter the elections as a representative of Ennahda, so the institutions of the movement should nominate him.
The Presidency of the Republic: The duty to protect the constitution coinciding with the legislative process
The President of the Republic, Kais Saeied, received on Tuesday, the 20th of October 2020 at the Carthage Palace Ali al-Hafsi, the minister who is in charge of relations with the Assembly of the Representatives of the People.
The meeting dealt with the draft laws that were withdrawn yesterday from the Assembly of the Representatives of the People, especially the draft which was submitted by the previous government regarding a draft basic law regarding freedom of audiovisual communication, organizing the audiovisual communication body and the control of its functions.
They also discussed the initiative of one of the parties which aims at revising Decree No. 116 of 2011 dated to 02 November 2011 regarding the creation of the High Independent Authority for Audiovisual Communication.
The president warned from any legislative initiative which violates the provisions of the constitution or that some initiatives that are subjected to the benefits
As for teh public opinion, the President Kais Saeied continues to be in the first place of the intentions to vote in the presidential elections with 64.8% The newspaper Al-Maghrib also clarified in its issue on Tuesday that the opinion polls in October 2020 that was carried out with the Sigma Konsai Foundation, confirmed that the major political balances in the country are in the process of turning into relative constants by continuing the bipolarity between the Free Constitutional party and the Ennahda movement in the legislative elections. As they obtained about half of the intentions to vote, while the President of the Republic, Kais Saeied continues to be in the first place of the intentions to vote in the presidential elections with 64.8%
The Free Constitutional party maintained the first place with 26.5% in the opinion polls for the intentions to vote, then it was followed by the Ennahda Movement, with a loss of 2.5 % compared to last month (21.1% compared to 23.6%).
The third place went to the Heart of Tunisia with 13.7%, then it is followed by the Democratic Current with 7.2%, the Dignity Coalition with 6.9%, and the People’s Movement with 5.9%
For reference, the answers were automatic, and the intentions for voting in the legislature did not exceed 27.2% compared to 51.8%.
The Human Rights Bulletin: The right among health necessity, economic need, social crisis and the failure of official policies
The killing of Abd al-Razzaq al-Khashnawi shook the Tunisian public opinion, as the relevant authorities implemented a demolition order of a stall, but this demolition resulted in the death of the owner of the stall inside it.
The authorities did not realize that he was inside the stall when the demolition decision was implemented. And the spokesperson for the Court of First Instance in Kasserine, Riad Al-Nawawi, confirmed in a statement, on Friday, October 16, 2020, that the investigative judge who is in charge of the case of the killing of Al-Khashnawi under the rubble of the stall during the implementation of the decision to demolish the building, decided to charge the premeditated murder of the mayor of Subaytilah and the former head of the National Security District While keeping them in a state of release.
In the same statement, he indicated that the investigating judge issued two imprisonment decisions and accused the head of the Municipal Police Station in Subaytilah and the driver of the bulldozer that executed the demolition order of premeditated murder
The question: Does the law achieve justice and how is that?
Meanwhile, the lawyers and judicial assistants decided to strike on Friday, the 16th of October of 2020, following the attack by a security agent on their colleague Nasreen Qarnah.
The lawyers ’move to strike came in parallel with what happened in the Court of First Instance in Ben Arous after the security forces returned to their practices of pressure on the judiciary after besieging the court to remove a colleague who is accused of violence and assault. This reminds us of what was known as the previous battle of Ben Arous.
Regarding the protests, the two chambers of the cafés and restaurants owners organized a protest in front of the local Theater in the capital to express their rejection of the government’s decision to suspend work by using tables and chairs in restaurants and cafes to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus.
The representative of the National Chamber of Café Owners, Sadri bin Azouz, considered that the decision harmed them and caused the closure of many cafes, and that they do not trust the government’s promises to adopt social measures to help them in this circumstance, since the promises of the previous government were not fulfilled according to him. He called upon them to allow the return of a percentage of the tables and chairs with the implementation of the health protocol.
As a result, the governors of the Greater Tunis region (Tunis, Ariana, Ben Arous and Manouba) decided to allow cafes, restaurants and tea halls to utilize 30 percent of the capacity inside closed spaces and 50 percent of the capacity in open spaces.
Starting from Monday, the 19th of October 2020.
It was also decided to continue banning the use of hookahs (Shishas) and playing cards. Besides, stressing the need to respect the health protocol and taking an immediate closure decision against anyone who does not respect the agreed precautionary procedures.
With regard to the latest developments in the spread of the virus in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya :
Last Update : 22/10/2020 - 15:00
Egypt :
Libya :
Tunisia :
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