Tunisian chief of military justice fired

Pres. Moncef Marzouki

Moncef Marzouki, interim president of Tunisia, has fired the country's director of military justice. The action, reported here, came a few days after the Military Court of Appeal sentenced several former officials who were convicted of killing protesters--the Martyrs of the Revolution--during a 2011 revolution. Judge Ali al-Fontasi was named as the new director of military justice. Five other defendants were acquitted. The court's decision was criticized for being too lenient. One press account reported:

The Military Prosecution called, Monday, on various parties to keep the military justice away from disputes and not to use the verdicts pronounced in the cases of martyrs and wounded of the Revolution as a means to question the integrity of the military justice.

The Criminal Chamber of the Military Appeal Court which pronounced the verdicts offers all guarantees of independence, the military prosecution indicated in a statement.