I represented Zied El Heni in this case, alongside a team of fellow lawyers, before the National Guard District of Ben Arous for nearly a year and a half. This involvement has given me a sufficiently thorough understanding of the file to offer both a legal and political assessment.

A Complex File, Yet Legally Straightforward

The case appears complex because it involves several procedures and legal acts. However, these acts were successive rather than simultaneous. They include:

• A Municipal Council resolution adopted in 1967;
• Another resolution in 2008;
• A further resolution in 2011;
• And finally, a transfer agreement signed in 2012.

The case is fundamentally rooted in administrative law. The decisive legal act is unquestionably the Municipal Council resolution adopted in 2008, which was duly approved by the supervisory authority.

The 2011 Resolution Has No Independent Legal Effect

The 2011 resolution carries no significant legal consequences because it merely reiterates and confirms the 2008 resolution. In administrative law, such acts are commonly described as confirmatory or declaratory decisions.

Consequently, any limitation periods or procedural deadlines must be calculated from 2008, not from 2011.

As for the transfer agreement signed by the Mayor, it was merely an implementing measure flowing from a prior municipal decision. The Mayor was acting under a situation of bound competence and had no discretionary authority.

To illustrate, the Municipal Council may be likened to a parliament, while the Mayor's role resembles that of a Head of State required to issue implementing decrees where legislation so demands.

The Exclusive Jurisdiction of the Administrative Courts

Case law, legal doctrine and comparative law all agree that municipal resolutions are purely administrative acts. As such, they enjoy a presumption of legality until annulled by the competent authority.

Accordingly, only the administrative courts possess jurisdiction to invalidate them.

Should a criminal, civil, commercial or even financial court happen to hear a similar case, both law and judicial conscience require it to refer the decisive issue — technically known as a preliminary question — to the administrative judge, who is naturally competent to rule upon it.

In such circumstances, common legal sense dictates that the administrative court's determination should be binding upon the criminal court.

Who Should Actually Be on Trial?

Under any legal interpretation, the proceedings could only concern those Municipal Council members who participated in the decisive 2008 resolution.

Even then, they should logically be acquitted, since their decision was itself based upon a municipal resolution dating back to the 1960s, which constituted the original legal basis of the transaction.

Not a Matter of Property Valuation

From a financial perspective, the case is not about the valuation of a piece of real estate.

Rather, it concerns the updating of a property exchange arrangement that had been contractually established decades earlier.

Reducing the matter to a simple dispute over market value fundamentally misunderstands its true legal nature.

A Revolution Consuming Its Own Children

Zied El Heni and Ezzedine Bach Chaouch — now 88 years old and severely weakened by illness — acted in the spirit of the Tunisian Revolution and believed in its promises.

They sought to restore property rights to individuals who had been deprived of them for nearly five decades, without any lawful expropriation, purchase agreement or legal confiscation.

As the old sages used to say: “Revolutions devour their own children, while carrion reserves itself for the leftovers.”

A Third Judicial Farce

As counsel in this case, I find myself witnessing what I consider to be a third judicial farce, following the so-called “Conspiracy Case No. 2” and the case of Chawki Etabib.

Yet many forget that cages built for birds cannot hold lions.

Justice Will Outlast Power

I have often said that our justice system has become Gaza-fied; both continue to be bombarded relentlessly, with or without a ceasefire.

Fortunately, political power is temporary by nature, whereas justice is eternal.