Tunisian president under fire for alleged abuse of power
Ethics watchdogs are taking the Tunisian president to court, accusing him of corruption for ordering the release of a political ally who has served less than three months of a two-year sentence.
TUNIS — Anti-corruption campaigners are taking legal action against Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi for issuing a special pardon to one of his party's advisers who was sentenced to two years in prison for corruption.
Essebsi issued the pardon Dec. 10 for Borhane Besais, a former political adviser to Nidaa Tounes and an adviser to former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Though the case dates back to before the 2011 revolution, when Ben Ali was ousted, Besais was sentenced less than three months ago.
On Jan. 11, anti-corruption group I Watch, transparency nongovernmental organization Al-Bawsala and Thameur Mekki, editor-in-chief of news website Nawaat, accused Essebsi of abuse of power. The lawsuit asks that Besais' pardon be suspended and that the authorities enforce his prison sentence.
Besais was convicted of assuming a fictitious position for six years in Sotetel, a subsidiary of state-controlled Tunisie Telecom, drawing an annual salary of 197,000 Tunisian dinars (about $65,661) in addition to other benefits.
