Prosecutor’s ‘action’ against lawyer is for ‘insult of public official in performance of his duties’ (Interior)

Tunis: The prosecution's 'action' against a lawyer comes after it found him guilty of 'insulting a public official in the performance of his duties', the Interior Ministry said in a statement on Monday night. 'He and a second lawyer deliberately physically and verbally assaulted two security officers from the judicial police,' it added. The ministry also said that the two lawyers in question had taken two security officers from the premises of the Palace of Justice and prevented them from carrying out their professional duties, which was documented in a video footage circulating. It stressed that the investigation against that lawyer was not related to his participation in a protest, as some media outlets have reported. Police officers arrested lawyer Mehdi Zagrouba on Monday evening while he was at the Lawyers' House in Tunis, lawyer Samir Dilou had told TAP. In the same context, lawyer Amine Bouker said an investigation had been ordered against lawyers Mehdi Zagrouba and Nidhal Salhi, without giving re asons. Lawyers staged a nationwide strike on Monday in response to a decision taken by the board of the National Bar Association on Sunday to protest the raid by security forces on the lawyers' house in the capital on Saturday night to execute an arrest warrant for Sonia Dahmani. The lawyers also held a sit-in in front of the Court of First Instance in Tunis, where journalists were prevented from entering to film and photograph the sit-in from inside the court. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse