Tunisian Minister of Environment arrested over Italian waste scandal

Tunisian Environment Minister Mustapha Aroui has been sacked and arrested over the shipment of hundreds of containers of household waste from Italy to Tunisia, spokesperson for the Sousse Court of First Instance Jabir al-Gunaymi said on Sunday.

Justice took over with the arrest of 21 people, including a Customs official, two directors at the National Agency for Environmental Protection (ANPE), four employees from the National Agency for Waste Management (ANGED), and the owner of a private laboratory.

During an accountability session before the parliament, Aroui stated that Tunisia is working on returning the containers to Italy — he continued that the Italian authority was informed of illegal trade activities.

Head of the Tunisian Administrative Reform and Anti-Corruption Commission Bedreddin al-Kamudi said that several officials from the Customs and the Ministry of the Environment were arrested.

Kamudi added that arrests will continue when the judicial research covers other officials related to this matter.

The shipment was seized by the Tunisian Customs after protests held by civil organizations and accusations of receiving hazardous waste from Italy.

The Customs accused the Ministry of Local Affairs and the Environment of standing behind the waste shipment and insisted that the Ministry granted permission for this.

A report was submitted on Dec. 14 to the Tunisian Administrative Reform and Anti-Corruption Commission, revealing several disorders that need to be referred to the judiciary. Further, the report presented recommendations to avoid similar scenarios in the future.

Notably, the Tunisian authority launched an investigation into corruption-related issues, namely “misconduct”, in which Tunisian former Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh, Industry Minister Youssef bin Saleh, and MP Jalal al-Zayati were involved.