Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Former Tunisian President, Sentenced To 35 Years In Jail For Theft, Unlawful Cash And Jewelry Possession

TUNIS, June 20 (Reuters) - A Tunisian court on Monday sentenced ousted president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and his wife, in absentia, to 35 years in jail each after finding them guilty of theft and unlawful possession of cash and jewellery.

Reading out the verdict and sentence in the courtroom after just one day of deliberation, the judge also ruled Ben Ali and his wife would have to pay fines totalling 91 million Tunisian dinars ($65.6 million).

The judge said the verdict on other charges, relating to illegal possession of drugs and weapons, would be pronounced on June 30, according to a Reuters reporter who was in the courtroom. (Reporting by Tarek Amara; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[KitchenCabinet]

02:57 PM on 06/22/2011

The wheels of justice grind exceeding slow but grind exceeding fine. It is not the most exemplary of trials yet one feels justice has been served. Despots, take heed.

[TFlint]

06:14 PM on 06/21/2011

Absentia must be a beautiful country. So many celebrities go there.

[Yank in France]

11:22 AM on 06/21/2011

Am I the only one here who takes umbrage (or even noticed) that the man was tried and convicted with the span of just three hours?!!

I agree that he is a nogoodnik but a lot of Tunisians supported him out of fear that the Islamists would either come to power or be allowed to impose their will on Tunisians, especially women.

My feeling is that the Tunisian revolution is stalled and the military chiefs are trying to keep a lid on discontent. They FEARED a protracted and potentially revealing trial!

[Enimal57]

12:35 PM on 06/21/2011

You are miss-informed: The trials just began. These current charges are the least grave and the easiest to prove: he left huge amounts of evidences in his palaces. This investigation took 5 months. He has at least 2 lawyers from outside Tunisia (one French Lawyer and one Lebanese lawyer). The ex president could not attend because of medical issues according to his lawyers. He is being charged with 93 counts. The charges are being tried in at least 5 other regional states in Tunisia for the total of 93 counts. His most serious charges are handled by the military courts for treason, kil.ling of innocent Tunisians, his and his wife’s shady business dealings. If you read French, you can see what he is being accused of after 23 years of dictatorship by going here: http://www.slateafrique.com/2709/questions-sur-le-proces-de-ben-ali

Revolution take YEARS to bear fruit. Read the history of past revolutions and tell me what you think in comparison.

[Yank in France]

01:03 PM on 06/21/2011

The trial has indeed just begun just as it has just ended!!

The fact that there are other trials planned does NOT change the fact that a man has just been tried, found guilty and sentenced in just six hours (not three as I initially said, but that doesn't change anything)! Here an excerpt from a recent dispatch hot from Tunisia itself:

"Tunis - Tunisian authorities were under fire on Tuesday for their high-speed sentencing in absentia of toppled president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his wife to 35 years in prison for misappropriating public funds.

The court's quick verdict on Monday after only six hours of deliberation on the first day of the landmark trial was dismissed as a "charade" by some Tunisians and as a "joke" by a lawyer for Ben Ali.

"It is a big disappointment, the kind of charade of summary justice that the dictatorship had accustomed us to," said Mouhieddine Cherbib of a France-based Tunisian rights group on Tuesday.

"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," Cherbib said."

http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Tunisians-unhappy-with-Ben-Ali-verdict-20110621

And yes, I read French which is where I got my initial information.

[DAE]

10:25 AM on 06/21/2011

"You can't go home again."

[Louie Rey]

09:30 AM on 06/21/2011

Who does he think he is, Lindsay Lohan?

[baddunion]

09:09 AM on 06/21/2011

I wonder how many years Obama will get for the "Gun Runner" scandle?

[CamelPaw357]

07:58 AM on 06/21/2011

35 years! That's too much time for theft. Community Service would have been a more appropriate sentence.

[Enimal57]

12:40 PM on 06/21/2011

The have their own penal code. If you read the details, you can see that 35 years is actually light. Tunisians are actually not happy with 35 years prison for this offense. He stole this money from regular Tunisian through shady and predatory business dealing....

[Atif Ahmed Choudhury]

06:59 AM on 06/21/2011

Great, but what about nailing this disgraced dictator for false imprisonment, torture, extrajudicial murder and other crimes against humanity? He has the blood of over 200 Tunisians on his hands (and no doubt countless more during his 24 years in power prior to his downfall)

[Howard53545]

05:42 AM on 06/21/2011

Now go get these crooks. We can lend you our Seals. If they resist give em both the Bin Laden treatment.

[Chipher]

02:37 AM on 06/21/2011

The same thing happened to Chalabi, and he ended up as a C|A asset in Iraq. The same thing happened to Zardari, and he ended up as our newest Shah of Pakistan. It's Zine's ticket to life in Alexandria, Virginia in a C|A safe house, with a post at National Defense University. He's 'made'!

[John Lamoreaux]

02:48 AM on 06/21/2011

CIA to Chipher: "We wish, dude!"

[MajorKarmaUSA]

01:56 AM on 06/21/2011

If you want to live in ignorance and not understand some of the truth about the world around you, I can not help you, nor will I do your work for you but I will give you one truth: NO ONE is allowed to rise to the ranks of influence and power without the endorsement and help of the Wealthy Elite and they trust no one who has not proven themselves loyal and controllable. They control these people by the skeletons in their closets and with few exceptions, I suggest pretty much every politician in serious positions of authority and power have very black skeletons in there closets and they are always the loudest Kettles calling the Pot Black.In the case of the Skull and Bones members, these are Pirates, true pirates with the blood oaths of pirates to do whatever it takes to reach their goals, including treason and murder. They claim their is also a bloodline right of passage to even be considered and yes Obama also is of that bloodline...look it up. I will tell you another secret, the Anglo Factions are grooming Prince William for King of the World. Now, am I a nut or are you just uninformed?

[John Lamoreaux]

02:26 AM on 06/21/2011

Such serendipity -- I was just reading Heinlein's Starship Troopers, and here I find such eloquent argument in favor of Heinlein's views on the franchise.

[Jennifer K Jerram]

07:39 AM on 06/21/2011

You're a nut.

[truthFORauthorityNOTaft]

01:35 AM on 06/21/2011

I have witnessed the fall of a dictatorship and change of regime in my home country. Everyone wants change but prosecuting these guys isn't a solid basis to start a democracy. It just gives some people immediate gratification/revenge but leaves the rest of the population with the feeling that even their new government is still a ruthless and vengeful one. It doesn't help. Ousted leaders like him, should be barred from political office ever again, their assets seized but otherwise left behind in time.

If nothing else, it will encourage other entrenched leaders in the region to give up their regimes when pressed. Otherwise they hold on to their post because the other choice is death. More innocent civilians will die. Basically a different approach to ousted leaders might prevent what is happening in Syria. Now that one, has willingly killed too many people to go free. It is too late for him. But the real tragedy is the innocent people being killed every day. Politics is a compromise and lesser evils are options that should stay on the negotiating table.

[John Lamoreaux]

02:38 AM on 06/21/2011

Nicely argued. Eastern European, perhaps? The Arab Spring's logic works differently, it seems. Their goal is to drive away capital, domestic and international. Prosecutions are very effective ways of doing this. Start them immediately, and follow through with executions. Anyone with any money -- and thus able to help restart the economy -- will flee to safer climes.

While this might seem counter intuitive, the great strategic advantage was recognized by the ancient Romans. It all comes down to Bread and Circuses. If a government ain't got no bread or money to buy it, they're gonna need circuses -- and good ones. And I think we'll all have to admit that there are few things more fun than long, drawn-out trials of former tyrants and public tyrannicide.

[John Lamoreaux]

03:04 AM on 06/21/2011

Is this a Zen koan? or am I not understanding the grammar?

1. What's the antecedent of 'this'?
2. Is 'what' an adjective or a relative pronoun?
3. Is it 'obama-like' or a prepositional phrase 'in obama' or is 'obama' the subject of the verb 'like' -- I'm assuming you mean President Obama, and 'obama' is not a misspelled common noun.
4. Do you mean 'country's' or 'countries' -- in either case, what's its function in the sentence?
5. Is this a sentence fragment, or did you forget terminal punctuation?

It's good to see that more foreigners are trying to learn English, though.

Four thank to these affort makeing too masters oar gloryous tonuge.

[mudshark12]

12:19 AM on 06/21/2011

Tunisia should seize Ben Ali's assets if possible.

[Vlad Roudenko]

12:34 AM on 06/21/2011

If the Austrians, Swiss, Americans, or the British have not done so already. In that case it would be too late.

[mudshark12]

04:03 PM on 06/21/2011

That's one of the reasons why I added the "if possible".

[John Lamoreaux]

02:47 AM on 06/21/2011

They should also confiscate his wife's shoe collection.
Sell em in Paris and you could feed the poor for months.
Ben Ali's hat collection could put food on the table
for at least another full month.

[mudshark12]

04:01 PM on 06/21/2011

I wonder if she had as many shoes as Imelda Marcos. What is with rich women and their footwear anyway. Also if you'll notice her "opposite half" had a fetish for hats which makes bizarre sense (head and feat). These people really deserve to be in jail!

[cliffeed]

10:33 PM on 06/20/2011

I hope Saudi Arabia extradites him so Ben Ali and his wife can serve their time.

http://cliffeed.com/2011/06/20/ex-tunisian-president-sentenced-to-35-years-in-jail/

[John Lamoreaux]

01:52 AM on 06/21/2011

Hard to imagine the Saudis would give him up. They -- and the other monarchies -- are fighting the Arab Spring with every tooth they've got left in their aged mouths and each of their long, finely-manicured fingernails.

It's not as if the Saudis are all that particular about the exiled psychopaths to whom they they play decadent host. The guiding principle of Saudi hospitality is and will surely remain: The more outlandish the exile's hat collection, the more Saudi kisses he gets.

Remember Idi Amin, the President of Uganda and self-declared King of Scotland? Or as he preferred to be called, at least on informal occasions: "His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor, Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of the Beasts of the Earth and Fishies of the Sea and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular." [No joke]

Well, gentle Idi makes the current gaggle of Arab velociraptors look positively sane, and humane. I mean, not even Gadhdhafi has a Hitler fetish. The most the psych doctors have ever pin on him is a mild crush on Joseph Stalin. (But whaaat a hat collection!?)