The weekly newsletter from 15th to 21th January
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The regime’s game: Changing faces and politics is the same
In a comprehensive change for faces, the 2nd term of the parliament started with surprises, as it started with the disappear of Ali Abdel Aal, the speaker of the first term, from the forefront of the scene before his close men joined him. As the new speaker of the parliament, counselor Hanafy Jebali accepted the apology of the Parliament’s secretary general, counselor Mahmoud Fawzy and his deputy, counselor Ahmed Al Mahdy from continuing their posts. It is noteworthy that the mandate’s term of counselor Ahmed Al Mahdy to the parliament was over few days ago Some parliamentary sources agreed that Abdel Aal wouldn’t run for the presidency of the Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee and he wouldn’t be assigned the presidency of any parliamentary committee. He would join as a member in one of the subcommittees.
A judicial source stated that the special council of the State’s Council agreed on the request of the new Speaker of the Parliament, Hanafy Jebali to fully delegate counselor Ahmed Mannaa who is one of the deputies of the head of the State’s Council, to work as the secretary general of the Parliament, starting from Thursday, July 22, 2020.
Jebali won the presidency of the Parliament’s first chamber after internal elections in which three representative competed, not including Abdel Aal. And each of the following won the the parliament’s secretary:
- Businessman Mohammed Abu Al-Enein, who ran for parliament as an independant despite holding the position of the deputy head of the Nation’s Future Party,
- Counselor Ahmed Saad Al Din who previously was the secretary general of the parliament from January 206 to September 2019 before submitting his resignation to Abdel Aal and he was replaced by Fawzy who apologized from the post.
A parliamentary source states that the Nation’s Future Party sent a text message to all its representatives before one day from the first session of the parliament, urging them to elect Jebali, Saad and Abo El Enein to the parliament’s bureau. Then it was followed by Abdel Aal’s presence to the parliament and it was noticed that he had signs of sadness. He sat alone in one room where he left it to the plenary session when his turn came to swear an oath. Then he left the main hall then the parliament before the elections of the parliament’s bureau. The representatives, Mostafa Bakry and Ayman Abo Al Ola accompanied him until he left the main gate of the parliament.
In a very quick session, the parliament was held to announce the final formation of the 25 sub-committees of the parliament in preparation to call the members of the various committees to elect the head and the 2 secretaries of each committee, marking the completion of the new parliament’s structure.
The first decisions of the new Speaker of the Parliament: Don’t criticize the majority party!
Counselor Hanafy Jebaly, the speaker of the parliament decided to dismiss the representative Mohamed Abd Elalim Dawood from the hall and refer him to the Parliament’s Bureau after the objection of the majority representatives on Dawood’s speech who demanded restoring the credibility of the Egyptian Media. As on Tuesday, during the plenary session, he said: “”It is not correct for the Ethiopian media to control its Egyptian counterpart during the Renaissance Dam negotiations in the United States, and there was no Egyptian coverage”. He added:
This raised anger among the representatives of the majority and a state of pandemonium prevailed in the session
The bylaws of the bad NGO’s act: It is finally issued!
After its issuance was delayed for more than ten months, the Official Gazette published the decision of Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly to issue the bylaws of the NGO’s Law, including the start of implementation of its texts starting from January 12, and obligating all associations, organizations and companies that practice civil work to adjust their status and complete their registration papers at the Ministry of Social Solidarity, before January 12, 2022.
The new bylaws provoked mixed reactions. Nasser Amin, head of the Arab Center for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, said that its articles reproduce the control of the security services over the procedures for registering associations and overseeing their work and activities, and that it acts as a window to hunt human rights and civil work defenders and trap them in the violation. Negad el-Borai, head of the United Group for Legal Consulting, said that the bylaws came in the footsteps of the law to support charitable work and put obstacles in the way of the civil work , stressing that the lesson is not in the articles of the list, but rather in the manner of its implementation.
In contrast to the two previous views; Human rights lawyer Ahmed Ragheb indicated that the list includes new articles that were not included in the law, some of them positive, such as the article on foreign funding, and some of them are not applicable in reality.
Judicial provisions: A judiciary for the police and another for activists
The Zagazig Criminal Court in Sharqia, headed by Counselor Sami Bayoumi, issued its judgment today, Wednesday, in Case No. 24094 of the Zagazig Second Felonies of 2020, punishing 3 police officers with 8 years imprisonment for each of them for being accused of torturing a citizen to death.
On the other hand, the judiciary continued to implement the Terrorist Entities Law which its victims are Islamists, liberals, leftists, and activists: Terrorism in Egypt is anti-regime which is not just raising weapon and using violence The First Circuit of the Court of Urgent Matters decided to accept a lawsuit filed by the Head of the Committee for Preserving the Funds of the Muslim Brotherhood, calling on the Minister of Justice, the Head of the Real Estate Registration and Documentation Authority, and the Governor of the Central Bank to transfer the funds and properties of 89 leaders of the “movement” to the State’s treasury. The list included the members of the guidance bureau and leaders in the “Movement”, in addition to the heirs of the former president Mohamed Morsy which are his wife Najlaa Ali Mahmoud and his for sons, Ahmed, Shaimaa, Osama and Omar.
On March 3, 2020, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi approved new amendments to the Terrorist Entities Law, which include “confiscating and freezing funds and property listed on terrorist lists even if their use in any terrorist activity is not proven”.These amendments were previously described by lawyer Negad el-Borai to Mada Masr that they express the state’s desire to end the file of the Brotherhood’s funds and transfer them to the state’s treasury as soon as possible, and to get rid of the restrictions imposed by the Court of Cassation on the issue of listing on terrorist lists.
The law gives the Public Prosecution the power to include persons or groups on lists of terrorists and terrorist entities after the matter is brought before the criminal court. The listing decision is published in the Official Gazette, so that the person / group listed on the terrorism list faces, on the next day, the implications of listing, the most important of which is the freezing of the funds owned by the person or entity, provided that the order of the frozen funds is then entrusted to the Committee for the Conservation, Management and Disposal of the funds of terrorist groups And terrorists, so that the committee performs its functions that begin with counting those funds, then demands that the Court of Urgent Matters dispose of it and transfer its subordination to the state treasury.
Under the current version of the law, the confiscation of money on terrorist lists includes: Private property; Such as the place of residence, car, the gold jewelry , and the liquid money in the house, as well as the accounts in banks, and fixed assets such as companies, shops and investments.
TIK-TOK: The Public Prosecution focus once there is an increase in the percentage of views on the platform.
The opposition judge at the North Cairo Court in Abbasiya decided to renew the imprisonment of Hanin Hossam and Mawada Eladhm, the two girls “TikTok” on their accusation of human trafficking, and trying to attract girls to work with them for 15 days pending investigation. The Appellate Chamber of the Economic Court had ruled the acquittal of the Tik-Tok girl Hanin Hossam and two others in their accusations of violating the society’s values. That took place after accepting the appeal against their imprisonment sentence. In addition the same Court decided to cancel the imprisonment of Mawada Eladhm and the accused Ahmed Sameh with confirming a fine of
Shimaa Samy and Nermine Hussein are released from prison but with precautionary measures
The Cairo Criminal Court released the researcher and journalist Shaimaa Samy and Nermine Hussein with precautionary measures in case No.535 of 2020 by the Supreme State
The social and economic rights: Wasting workers’ rights for the interests of businessmen
On Sunday, Morning, January 17, iron and steel workers entered an open sit-in inside the company to protest the decision of the company’s general assembly to close and liquidate factories, which was issued in January. 4000 workers and the entire trade union committee had gathered in front of the administration building and chanted the downfall of the liquidation decision at a time when a group of security forces deployed at the gate separating the company from the workers’ housing to prevent workers from joining the sit-in. The participants in the sit in raised one demand which is to cancel the liquidation and closure decision,and to develop the company in a manner befitting its position and great capabilities as a citadel for the iron and steel industry in the Middle East and according to its great capabilities that enable it and pave the way for this development.
On the other hand, the decision of the company’s general assembly was met with great dissatisfaction and wide reactions within the Egyptian society, which rejected the decision of the General Assembly and considered that the liquidation of iron and steel is a liquidation of the capabilities of the Egyptian people who built their companies and factories and at the heart of which the Iron and Steel Company is a national epic whose bill is paid by the people. Egyptian in various groups.
Political parties of various directions issued several statements denouncing the liquidation decision and strongly rejecting it. At the same time that several parties called for the formation of a popular front to confront privatization and launched several other initiatives.
The House for Trade Union and Workers Services issued an initiative to save the company and stop the liquidation decision The House confirmed that the development of the company is not an impossible matter, as some portray it, but it is a process that is subject to both will and rational management, and the house strongly rejected the decision of the general assembly that is tainted by legal invalidity and calls on sincere industry experts to discuss alternatives to development and possible reform. The House launched an initiative together to save iron and steel factories.
Magdy AlBadawi, vice president of the Egyptian Workers Union, declared his refusal to liquidate the Iron and Steel Company and turn it into a residential resort, as it is a symbol of the national industry in Egypt and the Arab world.
AlBadawi demanded, during the meeting to discuss the iron and steel company’s crisis, to form a new fact-finding committee to study the reasons that led officials to demand the development of the company and then retreat by seeking to liquidate it, as well as transferring all those who contributed to the loss of the company to the Public Prosecution. AlBadawi emphasized that the liquidation of a great company like the company of iron and steel is an economic suicide for several reasons, and the most important reasons are:
- The Iron and Steel Company produces more than 32 types of iron, and similar companies inside Egypt do not produce most of these types, and therefore the alternative solution for the government would be that once there is a need for these types of iron, the government would import that from countries as Turkey. Thus the government the import bill would rise which negatively affects the Egyptian economy.
- The liquidation of the company displaces nearly:
Nearly 5000 workers out of 7500 wouldn’t get a monthly pension until after the age of sixty, according to the new Social Insurance Law, which stipulates that whoever receives a pension during his exit from the early retirement system must have the value of his pension equal to more than 50% of the value of the last settlement.
AlBadawi also stressed that the liquidation of the Iron and Steel Company contradicts the Egyptian Constitution. As it calls for preserving and developing the state’s public ownership, so selling this company to scrap dealers and its lands to land brokers are areal waste of the value of the national industry and state property.
The Ministry of Public Business Sector said in a press statement that it and the Holding Company for Metal Industries. It mentioned that the first priority is to preserve the rights and gains of the workers in the Egyptian Iron and Steel company by giving them all their legal rights.
In an escalating struggle plan, the board of directors of the General Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions held an emergency meeting at the headquarters of the General Union, during which it decided to order the legal department to file an urgent lawsuit to stop the decision to liquidate the Iron and Steel Company.
The strike of Misr Aluminum Company: Compensation for companies ‘loss over workers’ wages:
The workers of Misr Aluminum Company in Nagaa Hammadi in Qena governorate, suspended their strike based on the agreement with the company’s administration. It is noteworthy that 5800 workers had entered a strike after 2 days of a sit in due to the Holding Company for Metal Industries didn’t fulfill its previous promise for the Trade Union Committee in last November to pay the annual profits which are the value of the basic salary in 5 months instead of 12 months as usual, due to the losses of the company in the last financial year.
Suspending the strike came after hours from the statement issued by the Ministry of Public Business Sector which warned of the danger of continuing in the strike that would lead at end to the company’s inability to pay any grant or bonus to workers, in addition to paying their monthly salaries.
Libiya
The Libyan Political Dialogue supervised by the UN Mission in Libya, witnessed a remarkable development after a stalemate for the past three months because there wasn’t any agreement among the members of the dialogue committee on the mechanism of choosing the Executive Authority that would unify the division in the Libyan government for more than 6 years.
The UN Support Mission in Libya announced the agreement of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum on the proposed mechanism of choosing the Executive Authority for the preparatory period. The Mission added in a statement that it made a one day voting and it asked the members of the Forum to vote on the proposal.
According to the mission, this came after agreement on the proposal for the proposed mechanism of a united Executive Authority which the advisory committee emanating from the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum proposed in Geneva last Saturday. The mission pointed out that 72 members of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum participated in the voting process, as 51 of them voted In favor of the proposed mechanism, which represents about 73% of the votes , 19 members voted against it, while two members abstained from voting, and two others did not participate in the process. The UN mission confirmed the approval of the proposal, after it received 73% of the votes, exceeding the required minimum Which was determined by the Advisory Committee at 63% of the votes.
The details of the mechanisms of choosing the united Executive Authority:
- Forming a list of each region that consists of 4 persons
- Each list specifies the post in which the region would run for, whether for the presidency of the presidential council or its membership or the prime ministry.
- The list enters the vote by members of the Political Dialogue Forum, provided that it obtains 17 recommendations (8 from the West, 6 from the East, and 3 from the South), and that it gets 63% of the votes of the members of the Political Forum in the first round
- In case, none of the lists obtained this percentage in the first round, the second round would be held after two days.The choice is made between the two lists that obtained the highest percentage, provided that the list that wins +50%
The mission commended the members of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum who participated in the voting process, for their commitment to the Libyan-Libyan dialogue facilitated by the United Nations, and “for assuming their responsibilities before the Libyan people”. Stephanie Williams, the Acting Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Libya said that today marks the first anniversary of the Berlin International Conference on Libya. She added, by this voting, the members of the Forum took an important step towards implementing the road map which was adopted in the capital Tunis mid November.
It stressed that Libyans have a real chance now to bypass their differences and divisions, in addition to choosing a temporary government to restore unifying their institutions through the long awaited democratic national elections. It stressed that the temporary Executive Authority would be replaced by a democratic elected one, after the elections on December 24, 2021. The statement clarified that the UN Support Mission in Libya is currently finalizing the nomination procedures and forms, in addition to a timetable for the voting process that would be introduced to all the members soon. And “a committee from the Forum verified the nomination application to ensure full transparency.
At the same time, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya announced the launch of the work of the second meeting of the Constitutional Committee, consisting of the two delegations of Parliament and the Supreme Council of State with ten members for each delegation to discuss the constitutional arrangements leading to the general elections on December 24, 2021. The meeting, which began for three day, would be held in Hurghada city in Egypt, according to a statement by the UN mission.
In a related context, the UN Security Council gave the UN Secretary-General António Guterres the green light to appoint Bulgarian Nikolai Mladenov and Norwegian Tour Winsland as new envoys of the international organization to Libya and the Middle East, respectively, according to diplomats’ confirmation to Agence France Presse, where the UN Security Council agreed to appoint the Bulgarian diplomat Nikolay Mladenov, the 48 year old is a new UN envoy to Libya, replacing the Lebanese Ghassan Salamé Since 2015, Mladenov has served as the United Nations envoy to the Middle East, and Norwegian Tor Wennesland would succeed him in this position.
The appointment of Mladenov comes ten months after the resignation of the Lebanese Ghassan Salamé from the position of the United Nations envoy to Libya, in a move that he attributed at the time to health reasons before expressing his dissatisfaction with the failure of many members of the United Nations, including members of the Security Council, to abide by the decisions which they were the first to agree to it. The appointment of the Bulgarian diplomat comes after the United States rejected two African candidates to assume this position, and imposed on its partners in the Security Council to divide the position into two parts: a UN envoy assisted by a “coordinator” for this UN mission, which consists of about 230 people.
According to diplomats, the appointment of a European figure on the head of the UN Mission in Libya, means that the position of “ a Mission’s coordinator” would be for an African figure in a way that looks like a consolation prize for the African Continent which always asserted that there should be “African solution for African problems”. Based on this principle, Africa tried fruitlessly to give the position of the UN Envoy to an African Diplomat. Guterres had proposed the name of the former Algerian foreign minister, Ramtane Lamamra, to succeed Salama, but Washington rejected this nomination. Thus, the Secretary-General proposed a name of another African candidate, Hanna Serwaa Tetteh who was the former Ghanaian minister whose nomination met the same American rejection. Mladenov has been the United Nations envoy to the Middle East since 2015.
Militarily, a few hours passed since the mechanism for forming the next executive authority was approved, until armed militias came out to turn against the political path in Libya. The Tripoli Protection Militia, affiliated to the Government of National Accord (GNA) announced in a statement that it rejected the outcomes and voting method announced by the UN mission in Libya regarding the agreement of the members of the Political Dialogue Forum on the mechanism for choosing the new executive authority
The Tripoli Protection Militia claimed that it had observed “a serious deviation from the right path in a number of transgressions, starting from the suspicious way of choosing some of the figures participating in the dialogue, to the way in which the proposals are presented and voting, and ending with the personal interference of some members of the Mission in directing the political path towards certain goals that do not serve the interest of Libya, but rather a narrow partisan circle that wouldn’t not be able to bring Libya to safety.
Humanly, the United Nations agencies said that at least 43 immigrants from Africa drowned off the coast of Libya, and ten others were rescued in the first accident of a shipwreck in the Mediterranean this year.
Two United Nations agencies reported today, Wednesday, that at least 43 West African migrants drowned off the coast of Libya when trying to reach Europe. Their boat capsized due to high waves in a first accident of its kind in the Mediterranean this year. The International Organization for Migration and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said, In a joint statement, the coast guard in the Libyan city of Zuwara have recovered ten survivors and brought them ashore. Libya is regarded as a major route for migrants seeking to reach Europe.
On the other hand, the relevant organizations with migration in the Mediterranean sea stressed that the main reason for the continuation of these humanitarian disasters is the European policies that are based mainly on a security approach that ignores humanitarian situations.
Tunisia
In a follow up to the parliamentary action for this week, on Wednesday, January 13, 2021, the speaker of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People supervised the meeting of the heads of blocs. This meeting is dedicated to the discussion on the bill related to the approval of measures in order to ensure the continuity of the Assembly’s action. It is noteworthy that this bill would be presented in the plenary session to be approved.
On Tuesday, January 19, 2021, during the plenary session the representatives voted on the decision related to approving measures to ensure the continuity of the Assembly’s action due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus. The votes were 148 yes, the abstention of one member and one sole rejection. On Tuesday, January 19, 2021, during the meeting of the heads of the Assembly’s bloc, it was agreed to approve restoring the role of the crisis’ cell in the Assembly of the representative of the people. In addition, postponing the consideration of the bill related to reviewing the bylaw and not presenting it throughout the period of the exceptional measures. The meeting of the blocs’ heads approved that the voting session would be dedicated whether to grant confidence for the cabinet’s reshuffle or not and that would be done by the attendance of the representatives.
The Speaker of the Assembly of Representatives. An action that is infiltrated by politics
The Speaker of the Assembly, Rached Al Ghannouchi finally issued a statement denouncing violence practiced by representatives of the Dignity bloc against a number of the representatives of the Democratic bloc. That took place after violence in the Assembly on December 7, 2020 and after the deterioration of the health bsituation of the representatives of the Democratic bloc who entered a hunger strike from a week. This statement came late and after a pressure from the representatives, which is not normal. As its normal that this action would be taken immediately and spontaneously from the Speaker of the Assembly once such incidents happen. Perhaps the reason is the common interests between the Ennahda Movement and the Dignity coalition which considered that Rached Al Ghannochi stabbed them in their back.
The same practices by the Speaker of the House of Representatives continued, after his recent statements on the Karoui case, which caused great controversy. Rashid Ghannouchi, leader of the Ennahda Movement and the Speaker of Assembly confirmed that he is confident in the acquittance of Nabil Karoui, the head of the Heart of Tunisia party.
Al Ghannouchi said in an interview with Arab TV on Thursday, January 14, 2021, that “The judiciary is independent and would say its word, and we believe that Nabil Karoui is innocent and generally a person is innocent until proven guilty. He added “”We think well of Nabil Karoui, and the issue is a matter of taxes and financial laws … Anyway the case is in the hands of the judiciary and we trust our judiciary that it would bring justice to the man so he would be released with honor..”
After the outbreak of the night protests during the quarantine,during the plenary session on Tuesday, January 19 the representative Abeer Mousa suggested inviting Hecham El Mechichi to the Assembly in order to discuss these actions as being the acting Minister of the Interior. The Heart of Tunisia party condemned these actions in a statement on January 18, 2021. The party expressed its full support and support for the army, security and National Guard forces, “saluting their efforts to face chaos, sabotage, bypass the law and their protection of individual property and public facilities. ” in addition, it called on the three presidencies to protect Tunisia and its people.
On the other hand, the Tunisian Labor Union was surprised by the silence of the authority and issued a statement calling on the protesting youth to stop the night protests because of the subjugation and excesses that might be dragged on them and not to be drawn into violence. In addition it denounced the looting and attacks on the public and private property ,calling on them to reject chaos and prevent sabotage. That is due to the events renewed every night for three days in many regions and neighborhoods, in which the protest witnessed riots, looting, attacks on public and private property, road blockages, and the depletion of security forces.
A cabinet reshuffle: A reshuffle to pose new balances
From some time now, there has been talk of an expected cabinet’s reshuffle, which the prime minister finally chose to announce on Saturday, January 16, during the quarantine period. According to this reshuffle, the following gentlemen were appointed:
- The Minister of Justice: Youssuf Al Zawaghy
- The Minister of the Interior: Walid Al Zahby
- The Minister of the State’s Property and Real State Affairs: Abd Allatif Al Mesawy
- The Minister of local affairs and environment: Shehab Ben Ahmed
- The Minister of Health: Al Hady Khairy
- The Minister of Industry and Small and Medium Enterprises: Reda Ben Mesbah
- The Minister of Energy and Mines: Sofian Ben Tounes
- The Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources: Osama El-Khuraiji
- The Minister of Culture and Heritage Valuation: Yussuf Ben Ibrahim
- The Minister of Vocational Training, Employment, Social and Solidarity Economy: Yussuf Fneira
- The Minister of Youth and Sports: Zakaria Belkhoga
In addition, it was decided to cancel the position of a financial state’s secretary and the ministry in charge of the constitutional bodies and the relation with the civil society while transferring its affiliated bodies to the Prime ministry.
During a press conference, the Prime Minister highlighted that the goal for this reshuffle is to raise the efficiency in implementing the government’s policy and its plans. He added that this reshuffle comes after an evaluation process for the governmental action and the level of coordination inside it
After declaring this reshuffle, the Prime Minister had sent a letter to the Assembly of the Representatives of the People, related to the request of holding a plenary session in order to vote on the cabinet’s reshuffle. And that was decided on Tuesday, January 19 However, it seems that this reshuffle did not win the support of many MPs. Some of them criticized it at the legal and objective level, such as Abeer Moussa who considered Al Mechichi’s statement to present the new ministers to the representatives as a stigma, and that the prime minister did not read the constitution because the amendment couldn’t be presented to the plenary session, according to her. While the criticism of some representatives is based on personal reasons such as the Representative Yamina Al Zoghlami who confirmed that the proposed cabinet’s reshuffle proposed by the Prime Minister Hicham Al Mechichi would not be voted in case he does not abandon the proposed ministers who are suspected of corruption or conflicts of interest.
In response to the recent protests, Hicham Al Mechishi addressed the citizens with a brief and confused speech in an attempt to calm the situation, during which he did not present any practical and timely solutions, but rather expressed his understanding of the youth’s demands and that he would provide an innovative framework for receiving their demands. This was considered by some as a meaningless speech, as the demands of young people are known and do not need further explanation, but rather they need quick solutions to solve the employment crisis.
“A state of congestion that the country witnesses to achieve the demands of the revolution and security continues repression as usual” or “After 10 years nothing has changed”
In the context of monitoring the violations for this week, a Security agent attacked a shepherd after passing through the governorate on Thursday, January 14, 2021, and as a result, he was transferred. The representative of Siliana Hatim Al Mansi confirmed that research and administrative and judicial procedures are still ongoing against the aforementioned security agent. Once again, a violation and investigation, then a return to square one.
The wave of protests continues in the gas sector, as the governorate of Kasserine witnessed great tension following the Douleb sit-in in the region, during which the protesters stormed the oil facility to burn it. This sit-in coincided with the Revolution Day on January 14, 2021. This Sit-in coincided with the feast of the Revolution on January 4,202.
Protests and strikes:
In addition, the anniversary of the revolution is coincident with the outbreak of several protests in many regions, including El Mourouj, Mnihla, Al Intilaaqah, Ettadhamen in the capital Tunis, Sousse, Mahdia, Kasserine and Sfax through which young people expressed their dissatisfaction with the current situation of the country. Moreover through these protests, demands dated back to 2011 are renewed which are the demands for employment and development. Security forces responded to these protests, who used tear gas to stop them. In addition, Some saboteurs took advantage of this opportunity to sow chaos in the country, storm major gas estates,some public facilities, and carry out robbery and destruction operations inside them.
In an attempt to control the situation and bring peace to the country, the President Kais Saeied ordered some Army units to protect some facilities and public and private properties. In addition, he visited some places that witnessed tension in order to talk with young people and receive their demands.
During these protests, many young men were arrested, both those who carried out acts of sabotage such as blocking the road and cutting off the electrical current, or even those who wrote some posts on some social media sites under the pretext of their intention of incitement, such as the young persons Montaser Salem, Hamza Nasri and Ahmed Gharam. Under pressure from civil society, including Amnesty International, the young man, Montaser Salem, was recently released.
In addition, the repression attempts continued, as on January 19, 2021 the security forces prevented the protesters in the march of the wounded persons of the revolution from continuing their way.
The constant investigation of corruption has not prevented the money that was stolen 10 years ago from being lost
Following the case against him and the suspension of his membership in the Supreme Judicial Council and the temporary lifting of his immunity, Al Tayeb Rashid appealed the decision of the Supreme Judicial Council to the Administrative Court and submitted a request to stop the implementation of the decision to freeze his membership.
In the same context, and in a follow-up to the emerging corruption issues in the country, the National Anti-Corruption Commission issued a statement on Wednesday, January 13, 2020, in which it responded to what was stated in the press conference held at the headquarters of the Journalists Syndicate, “With some who did not contract with them again or those who terminated their contracts are urgent and certain”.
The authority clarified in its statement that the non-renewal or termination of contracts was for the following “shortcomings” due to their violation of their labour rules and failure to respect the stipulated laws and procedures.
In this context, the Authority questioned the Truth and Dignity Commission, following the corruption suspicions that were recently revealed by the Court of Accounts, and it is still investigating new corruption cases in the country. The last one is related to the Ministers of Agriculture and Environment, and the Ministry of Industry regarding the suspicious activity of Tina Petroleum Services Company in Sfax.
Al Qamoudi added that he would submit the file to the Anti-Corruption Committee for follow-up in the coming days, commenting on the company’s activity which was represented in digging deep wells 1,500 meters below the surface of the earth and pouring industrial wastewater into the groundwater. He confirmed that what the company committed, would harm the neighboring farm, stressing that the factory which was built by the company on protected agricultural lands and the filling of the stream of Wadi Al Sha’bouni led to the disruption of the flow of water when the rains fell. Al Qamoudi emphasized that what Tina Petroleum Services Company did, requires following up with the various bodies that have facilitated the provision of administrative licenses, whether in the Ministries of Agriculture, Environment and Industry.
Last update : 15/01/2021 - 15:00
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Tremendous article, numerous good quality information. I am about to show my pals and ask them what they think.