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Ed Webb

Tunisia's amnesty law accused of protecting Ben Ali-era corruption - Africa - RFI - 0 views

en.rfi.fr/...ali-reconciliation-law-protest

Tunisia justice transition transitionaljustice corruption

shared by Ed Webb on 14 Sep 17 - Cached
  • A law granting amnesty to thousands of people linked to former President Zinedine Ben Ali has sparked outrage with critics saying it whitewashes corruption. But, despite protests in parliament and on the streets, the ruling coalition is sticking to its guns.
  • President Beji Caid Essebsi's ruling party has been pushing the reconciliation law since 2015, arguing it will improve the investment climate and help reviveTunisia's ailing economy. "I don't understand what all the fuss is about," says Labidi, arguing that it fills a legal loophole in Tunisia's 2013 Transitional Justice Law.
  • many civil society leaders fear the law will whitewash the entrenched corruption that fuelled the public anger behind the 2011 Arab Spring. "This reconciliation bill is a set back to freedom and liberty in Tunisia," Amine Allouche, a member of parliamentary watchdog Bawsala told RFI.
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  • Faced with widespread resistance when the law was first proposed two years ago, the government has had to amend it to exclude businessmen from the amnesty proposal. In the final version, pardons will only be granted to those who followed orders from corrupt leaders but did not benefit personally, essentially just public officials.
  • "They were all working for the corrupt dictator Ben Ali. So they could potentially all argue that they were simply taking orders and that they were all victims of a corrupt judicial system. So how is it possible to hold anyone to account?"
  • "The reconciliation law was proposed with the explicit goal of undermining the transitional justice law and setting up a parallel mechanism whose end goal was amnesty for the corrupt."
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