The Tunisian justice system is experiencing "its worst era" amid soaring state interference with judges' authority, the Association of Tunisian Judges claimed  on Thursday.

In Tunis, dozens of judges took to the streets on Thursday to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the first Tunisian constitution after the country's independence from French colonisation.

"But today it has become a painful memory after the massacre of the Tunisian judiciary. On June 1, 2022, 57 judges were dismissed, which became a black history after the injustice that Tunisian judges were subjected to," said Anas Al-Hammadi, the President of the Tunisian Association of Judges, facing a large crowd in front of the Tunisian Court of First Instance.

Last June, President Kais Saied sacked 57 judges, accusing them of corruption and protecting terrorists; charges which the Tunisian Judges' Association argue were mostly politically motivated.

A month later, the Tunis court revoked Saied's encroachment on the judiciary. 

On 14 August 2022, the Ministry of Justice's said that "the judges who were dismissed are still the subject of judicial prosecutions."

"We cannot continue to remain silent in light of the great injustice against the exempted judges. (...) the court's decision was not activated, and the Minister of Justice interferes in appointments through memos without any legal basis," said Al-Hammadi during the protest.

Passed last year by a low turnout, the new constitution in Tunisia stipulates that the President is the head of the armed forces and is charged with naming judges, who are banned from striking under the controversial draft.

In addition, the new constitution replaced the term of "judiciary power" with "judiciary job", a term charge judges have furiously refuse.

"The judiciary is an authority, not a job, and we reject the current constitution, which states that it is a job, and we reject attempts to domesticate the judiciary," added Al-Hammadi. By Basma El Atti, Mena