Regular meeting of Prime Ministry's Information Cell

Preparations made by the Interior, National Defence and Justice Ministries ahead of the National Constituent Assembly election and the security situation in the country were the major issues raised during the regular meeting of the Prime Ministry's Information Cell, held on Friday at the Kasbah. Spokesman for the Interior Ministry Hichem Moueddeb said the Ministry is working to ensure success of this event, in association with the Francopol (International Francophone Police Training) network which, he said, is training Tunisian security officers to this effect. He voiced satisfaction at the decline in the movements of protest which went down from 156 during July to 114 in August 2011. He also pointed out that the law on the state of emergency will be enforced to combat the phenomenon of road blocking whose number dropped from 184 in July to 152 in August. The representative of the Interior Ministry did not hide his worries that Tunisia might be the target of attacks from Al Qaida, on the basis of information reported by foreign media on the likelihood of Al Qaida attacks, on the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2011 events. He called, in this regard, to show more vigilance and prudence. He reminded, in this context, of the efforts made by security officers to combat crime. He said that they have arrested, with assistance from the national army, 23,500 individuals in the last five months and seized huge quantities of weapons. The representative of the National Defence Ministry, Major Colonel Mokhtar Ben Nasr said meetings have been held since September 5 to entrust military units with the task of protecting the headquarters of regional sections of the Independent Higher Authority for Elections (IHAE), in co-ordination with home security forces. Major Colonel Mokhtar Ben Nasr said the security situation at the interior of the country is now stable, more particularly in the cities of Douz, Metlaoui and Sbeitla which, he reminded, witnessed acts of unrest after some individual squabbles which degenerated into family and tribal conflicts. These clashes, he said, injured scores, including 54 in Douz, as a result of the use of shotguns and incendiary bottles. 090911_RencontrePres2 For his part, representative of the Justice Ministry Kadhem Zine el Abidine said some courts of first instance were tasked with examining appeals filed to them, pointing out that courts of Bizerte, Grombalia and Sfax received appeals, given their competence to examine such cases. He also said that courts continue examination of a number of cases regarding the ousted president, two former interior ministers appointed before January 14, as well as senior security officers, including the case of martyrs brought by the Military Court of El Kef to the Indictment Division of the Court of Appeal of the same region and which was examined last September 6. A similar case was brought by the Tunis Military Court to the Indictment Division of the Court of Appeal of Tunis, he said, adding that this case will be examined next September 15. Mr. Kadhem Zine El Abidine reminded of the case dubbed "Tunis-Carthage Airport" which appeal will be examined next September 19. Regarding the case related to the contract on public depository of Jebel Chekir, the representative of the Justice Ministry said defendants are essentially the ousted president and the former environment minister who had awarded the contract to a foreign side, thus causing serious damage to the country's interests.