Belaid case: Trial postponed until Feb. 23, 2024 [Upd 1]

The 5th Criminal Chamber of the Tunis Court of First Instance on Tuesday decided to postpone the trial in the assassination of opposition leader Chokri Belaid until February 23, 2024, a TAP journalist on the scene learned. This decision was made to allow the appointment of a second lawyer for accused Amine Guesmi, following a procedural malfunction and the request made by accused Riadh Ouertani to be heard in writing. A petition was lodged by the latter from the Mornaguia prison to the president of the chamber to allow the court access to the data he had refused to disclose during the trial. Defence team member Imene Bejaoui said that the procedural malfunction consisted in the failure of the president of the criminal chamber to inform the regional section of lawyers in accordance with the decree-law organising the bar. She added that a lawyer had been appointed to defend accused Mohamed Guesmi after consultation with the Bar Association. All the defendants were present before the criminal court on Tuesd ay, with the exception of Mohamed Aouadi, Ezzedine Abdellaoui, Mohamed Amri and Ahmed Mekni alias "Somali," who were taken from prison but refused to attend the hearing, preferring to wait in the court's holding cell. These defendants were heard in previous trials, with the exception of Abdellaoui, who still refuses to be interrogated. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse