Tarek Wasifi is one of many policemen who was recently sacked on several charges including suspected dealing with extremists, facilitating the work of terrorists and helping them move and leave the country, and getting involved in smuggling networks, bribery, law-breaking, privacy violation and indiscipline.

Wasifi said he was administratively dismissed without for allegedly being affiliated with the dissolved regime and giving a testimony containing false information. As a result, he filed a complaint to the court. The decision to sack him, he claims, was purely “political.”

Tarek Wasifi is one of many policemen who was recently sacked on several charges including suspected dealing with extremists, facilitating the work of terrorists and helping them move and leave the country, and getting involved in smuggling networks, bribery, law-breaking, privacy violation and indiscipline.

Wasifi said he was administratively dismissed without for allegedly being affiliated with the dissolved regime and giving a testimony containing false information. As a result, he filed a complaint to the court. The decision to sack him, he claims, was purely “political.”

“My life has turned into hell because I’m wandering around the courts without any income or livelihood to preserve my dignity and that of my family’s,” he said.

Wasifi said that the Administrative Court did him justice and that he did return to his work in Kairouan (to the south) for a while but he was sacked again after he was referred to the Ministry of Interior’s (MoI) Honour Council.

Fired for the wrong allegiances?

The MoI has recently sacked about 110 police personnel from across the security apparatus including guards, policemen, prison guards and customs officers to protect the security establishment from any violations, said Waleed Wakini, the Ministry of Interior MoI’s media officer. Most of them were appointed under the former troika government led by Ennahda.

Wakini said the work of the MoI’s Honor Council is based on three criteria when checking the security apparatus including: discipline, respecting human rights and sacredness and tackling extremism and smuggling.

Another policeman who was sacked for allegedly dealing with terrorists said he was innocent and never dealt with any terrorists to be imprisoned and brought to justice.

Speaking anonymously, he added that he was sacked for political considerations including his sympathy with Ennahda. “MoI is controlled by political allegiances and conflicts between the old regime and the new rulers,” he claimed.

Internal conflicts

According to a report published in July by International Crisis Group, the Tunisian security apparatus is suffering from “internal conflicts” and “is undermined by political battles.”

The report shows that the MoI has employed 25,000 new policemen since toppling Ben Ali’s regime in early 2011, which is considered a “quick increase in the number of unqualified personnel.”

“That led to reducing integrity and professional capacity of the main security personnel, limited the framing capacities and increased corruption,” read the report.

Tawfik Bu’on, General Inspector of National Security however, denied, in a media statement, the existence of a “parallel police” in the MoI but conceded:

“Some policemen allow themselves to do whatever it takes to get certain positions in reference to some security officials who are affiliated with some political parties.”

In September 2013, Lutfi Jeddo, the former Minister of Interior, said in a speech to the parliament: “All the current parties seek a share in the MoI … There are people in the ministry who are loyal to some parties and when we spot such people, we sack them.”

Getting back at Ennahda

When Ennahda rose to power, the opposition parties and security unions accused it of violating the MoI during the period in which it ran the country. Ennahda denied all of these accusations.

Ali Zarandini, a security expert, said “There are conflicts in the MoI which should be neutral and aim to enforce laws regardless of allegiances.”

“All the parties, legal organizations, security unions and the MoI are talking about the republican security. However, till now, we have not seen any consensus on it or a commitment to implement it,” Zarandini said.

He called for not exaggerating the number of police personnel who have been sacked, considering sacking those who broke the law by the Honour Council as natural, saying: “The MoI should serve the new reality in the country and aim to enhance democracy.”

Sahbi Jweini, spokesperson of a security union, said in a phone call that the Honour Council was suspended in 2011, which allowed the appearance of many phenomena that do not serve the security establishment such as “wearing sectarian outfits, the attraction of many policemen to the extremists’ places and taking photos with them.”

When asked about the reasons which prevented the security unions from supporting the sacked personnel, he said: “We have always been against the vindictive decisions. We will support them and protect their rights except for those who were proved guilty.”

 Bu’on said that “five or six” of the 101 personnel who have been sacked recently were brought to justice for dealing directly with smuggler networks or some terrorists.

He said that the policemen who were appointed after toppling Ben Ali from 2011 to 2013 “Were not subject to any security measures or investigations especially that they should be free from any criminal or political offences.”

He added that those sacked “Were not well-trained after they joined the security apparatus. Therefore, their thought was shallow and they were not immune to ideological or partisan polarization.”

He claimed that some of the sacked policemen took “bribes” from presumed terrorists in exchange for revealing sensitive information about the locations of some of security patrols. However, after verifying things inside the MoJ, there was not any evidence that any of the sacked personnel were actually detained, making the possibility of political conflicts over the judiciary an option.