The court of first instance of Tunis sentenced magistrate Hammadi Rahmani to 18 months in prison for harm to others via public communication networks and attribution of unproven facts to a public official. This sentence follows publications on social networks in which the magistrate raised suspicions of corruption targeting the former first president of the Court of Cassation, Taïeb Rached.
In a message published on his Facebook page, Hammadi Rahmani reacted strongly to the verdict, believing that the Tunisian justice system ignored his status as a judge, his judicial immunity as well as a final administrative judgment attached to the file.
« Two parallel lines: either you fight corruption, or you persecute those who oppose it! », he wrote, denouncing a trial marked according to him by numerous procedural violations and a clear desire to silence him.
The magistrate affirmed that his publications had contributed to “ push towards the accountability of the former president of the Court of Cassation, Taïeb Rached », recently sentenced to 30 years in prison and to reimburse the State nearly 935 billion millimes, in what he describes as the largest scandal of judicial, financial and political corruption in the history of Tunisia.
Rahmani finally joked about the media leaks preceding the judgment:
« Mosaïque FM spoke the truth in its ‘big scoop’ by publishing three quarters of the truth… but forgot the remaining quarter: the reprieve. And I know well that Mosaic — just like its great sources — never forgets. »
S.H
