Following an October 2 press conference held by Tayeb Oqaili— a member of the national initiative to “uncover the truth” about the assassinations of Chokri Belaïd and Mohamed Brahmi—during which time he revealed leaked documents showing governmental negligence in providing protection to slain opposition politician Mohamed Brahmi, Minister of Human Rights and Transitional Justice, Samir Dello, vowed to open the archives of the political police in the next few days.

Following an October 2 press conference held by Tayeb Oqaili— a member of the national initiative to “uncover the truth” about the assassinations of Chokri Belaïd and Mohamed Brahmi—during which time he revealed leaked documents showing governmental negligence in providing protection to slain opposition politician Mohamed Brahmi, Minister of Human Rights and Transitional Justice, Samir Dello, vowed to open the archives of the political police in the next few days.

The minister said Tunisians would be surprised to discover the involvement of some opponents in the political police apparatus, insinuating that Oqaili himself is among those involved. Oqaili challenged the minister to disclose the archive.

Critics and human rights activists quickly accused the minister and his government of delaying the drafting of the transitional justice law, and the use of the archive to blackmail politicians and businessmen.

Using it against opponents

Sharaf al-Din Kulaill, a member of the human rights Group of 25 said that opening the archive of the political police is theoretically possible if decree number 41, related to access of administrative documents, is activated. Al-Din Kulaill clarified that there is a problem which hinders the opening of the political archive file because first of all it is related to the security of the state and second because it relates to personal privacy of individuals.

Kulail noted that the theoretical level is different from the reality level because the archive of the political police was subject to systematic takeover campaigns since the revolution in order to be used and manipulated.  He added: ”I would not be surprised to see members of the political police wearing the revolution’s ‘jubba‘.”

On the other hand, Issam Dardouri, the head of Tunisia branch of the Association for Republic Security, said that addressing the security system must be within mechanisms working for the interest of the State Security Ministry in the context of maintaining public security and not for political prosecution.

Dardouri pointed out that there were false security reports with the purpose of taking revenge on some people. He pointed out that building a neutral security system is the best effective tool in serving national security and the state.

A populist method

Mouldi Fahem, a leading member of the Republican Party, considered that the opening of the political police archive should not be dealt with in a populist manner. ”It should be addressed based on a wise political practice under democratic governance,” he said.

“The troika government is confused and it will fail if it opens these thorny issues under the security chaos and the attempts of the Ennahda Movement to dominate the key government institutions such as the interior ministry,” Fahem said.  He stressed that the parallel security, at this very sensitive time in the history of the country, has become more dangerous than the political police archive, especially in light of the spread of terrorism and political assassinations.

Fahem added that the handling of the national security file is more important than the issue of violations that have not only become limited to the interior ministry but have also reached the military institution. ”This is a flagrant threat especially because the Islamic oriented Ennahda Movement reconciled with many of the security cadres of the ousted regime and gave them sensitive positions in the framework of special interests.” 

A dangerous apparatus

“Political police are the long arm of tyranny dominating power, wealth, the people and the fate of the country,” said Najwa Rezgui, a member of the Equality Organization and of Amnesty International.

The political police was the most important and most dangerous apparatus ever of the authoritarian regime for more than half a century. It dominated all power and influence centres of the state as well as political, judicial and military positions. Rezgui added that revealing the facts of the archive was among the demands raised by Tunisians during the January 2011 revolution.

However, Rezgui believes that disclosing the police archive and the use of the judiciary to incriminate innocent people or to cover the crimes of influential people is now too late, because a substantial part of the archive has already been damaged and all documents and evidence, which incriminate the symbols of the old regime, were burned.