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ROME: Tunisian Environment Minister Mustapha Laroui has been arrested in connection with a scandal involving the shipment of hundreds of containers full of mislabeled household and hospital waste from Italy to Tunisia.
Senior officials of the ministry, Tunisian Customs and the Waste Management Agency were also arrested in the same case. The suspects will be questioned by prosecutors in Sousse.
According to Italian news agency ANSA, the containers were declared by the Tunisian company importing them to contain scrap plastic left over from manufacturing processes, which the firm said it would recycle.
However, those containers were discovered to be holding tons of household and hospital refuse, the import of which is banned by Tunisia, raising speculation that they form part of an illicit trade in waste products.
Tuesday, 22 December, 2020 - 08:30
A view of a container being carried by a crane above a freight ship at the port of Sousse, where containers of household waste from Italy are blocked. (AFP) Tunis- Al Mongi Al Saidani
Tunisian Environment Minister Mustapha Aroui has been sacked and arrested on Sunday over the shipment of hundreds of containers of household waste from Italy to Tunisia, according to spokesperson for the Sousse Court of First Instance Jabir al-Gunaymi.
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.