The Tunis Court of Appeal has definitively closed the case against former Minister of the Environment Riadh Mouakher. The criminal chamber specializing in financial corruption cases has in fact decided to reject the admissibility of the case, thus annulling the conviction handed down at first instance.
The case dates back to February 2023, when Riadh Mouakher, who had headed the Ministry of the Environment between 2017 and 2018, was placed in police custody on suspicion of exploitation of public office for personal purposes, in accordance with article 96 of the penal code.
The file concerned a public contract for the purchase of administrative vehicles concluded during his mandate, and also involved a Civil Protection executive reporting to the same ministry.
In November 2024, the specialized criminal chamber of the Tunis court of first instance sentenced Mouakher to three years in prison, and the executive to two years, for irregularities in the market award procedure.
The two men immediately appealed, contesting the regularity of the judgment and the validity of the evidence retained.
During the appeal hearing, the Court decided to release the defendants, while placing them under judicial supervision.
After several postponements – the last in May 2025 – the Court of Appeal finally delivered its verdict: the first instance judgment is censored and the case is declared inadmissible, Mosaique fm reports today.
This decision means that the appeal court did not judge the merits of the case, but considered that the legal conditions for prosecution were not met.
It thus puts an end to the proceedings initiated against Riadh Mouakher and the Civil Protection executive, exonerating the two men after almost two and a half years of proceedings.
This acquittal comes in a context where several former public officials face trials for suspicion of corruption. It is already giving rise to contrasting reactions: some see it as a strict application of the law, others as a new setback for the fight against corruption in Tunisia.
