Mohamed Abbou (Arabic: محمد عبو), born on 10 May 1966 in Tunis, is a Tunisian lawyer and politician. He was an adviser to the prime minister. From December 2011 to June 2012, Abbou was in charge of administrative reform in

Jebali Cabinet The first cabinet of Tunisian Head of Government Hamadi Jebali was presented on 20 December 2011. Jebali has been appointed by interim President Moncef Marzouki, who had been elected by the National Constituent Assembly, a body constituted to ...

. From May 2012 to March 2013, he was general secretary of the General Conference for the Republic (CPR). Abbou held the same position in his own party, the

Democratic Current The Democratic Current ( ar, التيّار الديمُقراطي, at-Tayyār ad-Dīmuqrāṭī) is a social-democratic political party in Tunisia that was founded in 2013. The party was initiated by the former secretary-general of the Congres ...

, until March 2016 and then continued until April 2019.

Training

After receiving his master's degree of law and a DEA in criminology, on 28 August 2012 he presented a doctoral thesis on private law, at Tunis – El Manar University. The subject of his thesis was Limits of freedom of the press.

Activities

His actions as a lawyer at the Court of Cassation of

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

made Mohamed Abou known by his activism for human rights. He was also a member of the National Council for Liberties in Tunisia. At the same time, he was a member of the steering committee of the Young Lawyers Association. A young member of the executive board of the Tunis Center for the independence of the judiciary and the bar, also a leading member of his political party,

Congress for the Republic The Congress for the Republic ( ar, المؤتمر من أجل الجمهورية, Al-Mu’tamar min ajl al-Jumhūriyya; french: Congrès pour la République), also referred to as El Mottamar or by its French acronym CPR, is a centre-left seculari ...

. Following his articles that were published on Tunisnews, a website of opposition to the regime of

Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali A zine ( ; short for ''magazine'' or ''fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very smal ...

, he was arrested on 1 March 2005 and on 29 April was sentenced to three years and six months in prison. This was especially for the articles titled Ben Ali – Sharon in which he compared Ben Ali to Israeli Prime Minister

Ariel Sharon Ariel Sharon (; ; ; also known by his diminutive Arik, , born Ariel Scheinermann, ; 26 February 1928 – 11 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006. S ...

Political responsibilities

After the 2011 revolution and the overthrow of the Ben Ali regime, he was elected on 23 October 2011 as a member of the

Constituent Assembly of Tunisia The Constituent Assembly of Tunisia, or National Constituent Assembly (NCA) was the body in charge of devising a new Tunisian constitution for the era after the fall of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his Constitutional Democratic Rally (R ...

in the Nabeul 1 constituency before being appointed on 24 December as adviser to the Prime Minister, in charge of Administrative Reform in the Hamadi Jebali government. Following the latter appointment, he preferred to resign from the Constituent to devote himself to his ministry. On 13 May 2012, the national council of the CPR elected Abbou as its secretary general. He replaced

Abderraouf Ayadi Abderraouf Ayadi ( aeb, عبد الرؤوف العيادي; born 12 February 1950 in Manouba, Tunisia) is a Tunisian human rights activist, politician and lawyer. After the Tunisian Revolution in 2011, he was elected as a member of the Constitu ...

. On 13 May 2012, CPR's national council elected Abbou as the party ‘s Secretary General. He succeeded Abderraouf Ayadi5. On 30 June, however, at a press conference at the CPR headquarters, he announced his resignation from the government. He declared that his decision was an objection to the limited prerogatives that did not allow him to fight corruption. On 26 August, at the end of the party's congress, he was reinstated as Secretary General of the CPR.Tunisia's anti-corruption minister quits
/ref> On 27 March 2016, Ghazi Chaouachi succeeded him as Secretary General of the Democratic Movement. On 21 April 2019, he took over the head of the party to become a candidate for the

2019 Tunisian presidential election Presidential elections were held in Tunisia on 15 September 2019, the second direct vote for the presidency since the 2011 revolution. The elections had originally been planned for 17 and 24 November, but were brought forward after the death of ...

, at the second national congress.

Private life

Mohamed Abbou is married to Samia Abbou, who is a member of constitution Assembly. They have three children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abbou, Mohamed Democratic Current politicians Tunisian socialists Tunisian secularists Members of the Constituent Assembly of Tunisia 20th-century Tunisian lawyers Tunisian human rights activists 1966 births Living people 21st-century Tunisian lawyers Candidates for President of Tunisia