Who would have thought that setting the date for the Ordinary General Meeting of the National Bar Association of Tunisia would become a political issue?

Since the promulgation of Decree-Law 79/2011 - and even before, under the 1989 law - the date of the ordinary AGM had never been a subject of dispute... until 2022. The problem is far from legal, it's resolutely political - not to say politically motivated.

Legally, article 51 of Decree-Law 79/2011 on the organization of the legal profession regulates this issue. It reproduces the provisions of article 50 of the 1989 law:
"At the end of each judicial year, the President of the Bar or, failing that, the Secretary General, sets the date for the ordinary general meeting and convenes all practicing lawyers..."
This is a clear procedural text that requires no interpretation. The judicial year ends on July 16 and begins again on September 16. Unlike the calendar year, it does not include the judicial vacancy; indeed, it is opposed to it. The decree-law makes a clear distinction between the judicial year and the calendar year. For example, article 57 specifies that the term of office for representatives of the structures is three years (and not three judicial years).
This clarity has enabled the text to be applied smoothly for decades: around mid-July, or sometimes even earlier, the Ordre's ordinary general meeting was held, whether elective or not.

But this "uneventful" text was about to have one.

Before the end of the 2022 judicial year, the lawyers noted that Bâtonnier Brahim Bouderbela - whose three-year term was coming to an end - was abstaining from setting the date for the ordinary AGM, which was to be elective. He declared that he wanted to hold the AGM in September, arguing that it was, in his view, the end of the judicial year. He asserted that all his predecessors, bar associations, lawyers and even jurisprudence, had erred in their application of the text, by unduly including the judicial vacancy.

Obviously, neither Me Bouderbela's experience nor his level of expertise, nor that of his supporters, can lead us to believe that this was a simple error of interpretation. The Secretary General of the Order at the time - none other than the current President of the Bar, Hatem Mziou - publicly disputed this obviously erroneous reading of the text.

Why did Me Bouderbela behave in this way? The answer lies in the political context of the time.

Me Bouderbela, like the majority of the Conseil de l'ordre, had supported the coup de force of July 25, 2021. As early as July 27, they had issued a communiqué pledging their allegiance to Kaïs Saïed. But Bouderbela was particularly zealous. He did not flinch in the face of the methodical regression of the profession, orchestrated by Kaïs Saïed: exclusion of the Order from constitutional bodies, dissolution of the Supreme Council of the Judiciary - which Bouderbela defended -, and total silence in the face of the appearance of colleagues before military tribunals. Bouderbela has shown an unprecedented degree of kowtowing to the powers that be.

At the beginning of the summer of 2022, having chaired a sub-committee in charge of economic affairs for the drafting of a purely formal constitution, Bouderbela wanted to extend his loyal services during the campaign for the constitutional referendum on July 25. He may also have been hoping that Kaïs Saïed would amend Decree-Law 79/2011 to allow him to run for a second term. It was therefore in his interest to postpone the elections, to grant himself a mandate extension - in contradiction with his own practice, since he had held the 2021 ordinary GA in July.

Some lawyers did not tolerate this maneuver. They filed an injunction requesting the appointment of an ad hoc committee made up of former bâtonniers to ensure that the AGM was held. Pro-Kaïs Saïed supporters - led by Hatem Mziou - cried interference in the affairs of the profession. The request was withdrawn after a call from former bâtonniers for an internal resolution to the conflict. Bouderbela then instrumentalized the affair, posing as the victim of a political plot, monopolizing the media - with opponents forbidden to speak.

Another case on the merits is still dragging on before the Tunis Court of Appeal, as the President of the Bar, Hatem Mziou, is refusing to add the Ordre's documents to the file.

Awarded the presidency of the Assembly of People's Representatives, Brahim Bouderbela became the role model for the current President of the Bar, Hatem Mziou. The profession then reached an unprecedented level of discredit and violations. Mr. Mziou even went so far as to declare, in an official statement, that the success of the July 25, 2021 process was the priority of the Bâtonnier and the Conseil de l'Ordre.

In his media appearances, Me Mziou never ceases to praise Kaïs Saïed and express his confidence in him. For him, denouncing violations of the 2014 Constitution, or even that of 2022, as well as human rights abuses, is a political instrumentalization of the profession. He refrains from doing so.

Insensitive to the prevailing ignominy, the bâtonnier remains deaf:

• the historic number of lawyers detained or prosecuted for their opinions or free speech, denounced by international bodies,
• to grotesque violations of the right to a fair trial,
• to the deterioration in the justice system, in lawyers' day-to-day lives, and in their practice guarantees,
• to the very violation of the lawyer's home.

Nothing seems to dent his opportunism. He maintains the ritual of holding the AGM in September, as a token of loyalty to the regime and to his predecessor Bouderbela. In fact, he held the AGM in September last year, and the next one will also be held in September - if it is held at all. The Bâtonnier is also hoping that the decree-law will be amended in his favor so that he can stand for re-election. A bill to this effect has already been submitted to the ARP. This could be his share of the agape - however pernicious it may be for the profession and its members.

It remains to be seen whether the profession will break with this betrayal of its principles and history. Will the bâtonnier's vile services end in disaster? Or does the reign of Carthage's dynasty of bâtonniers-sbires still have a bright future ahead of it?
... Patience in the azure.