ZINE AL-ABIDINE Ben Ali has been sentenced in absentia to 35 years in jail after a Tunisian court took just one day to convict the former president whose overthrow helped inspire the Arab Spring.
Ben Ali, who has been in Saudi Arabia since being forced from power in January, was found guilty of theft and illegally possessing jewellery and large sums of cash.
There was mixed reaction, with many Tunisians expressing delight at a sentence longer than expected but others concerned at the quick deliberations.
“It is a big disappointment, the kind of charade of summary justice that the dictatorship had accustomed us to,” Mouhieddine Cherbib of a France-based Tunisian rights group said yesterday.
“We wanted a real trial, a fair one . . . a trial of the dictatorship with people who were tortured appearing as witnesses – a justice system from which you learn something,” Mr Cherbib added.
A 35-year sentence was also handed down to Ben Ali’s wife, Leila Trabelsi, a former hairdresser whose lavish lifestyle and clique of wealthy relatives were symbols of the corruption of the Ben Ali era for many Tunisians. The former president was also fined 50 million dinars (€25 million) and his wife 41 million dinars.
A second case against Ben Ali, involving weapons and drugs allegedly found at a presidential residence in Carthage, was postponed to June 30th to allow his legal team more time to prepare his defence.
Ben Ali’s lawyer in Beirut denounced the verdict as farcical. “This is a joke,” Akram Azoury told Agence France Presse. “You don’t react to a joke. You just laugh.”
The former president, who presided over an authoritarian regime for 23 years, denies any wrongdoing. In a statement this week, Ben Ali said he had been tricked into leaving the country by senior security officials who told him he was the target of an assassination plot. He was persuaded to get on an aircraft that was taking his wife and children to safety in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, but with the intention of returning immediately, the statement said.
“He boarded the plane with his family after ordering the crew to wait for him in Jeddah. But after his arrival in Jeddah, the plane returned to Tunisia without waiting for him, contrary to his orders.
“He did not leave his post as president of the republic and hasn’t fled Tunisia as he was falsely accused of doing,” the statement said.
The Tunisian government said in February it had asked Saudi Arabia to extradite Ben Ali.