(Tunisia's) Ben Ali to face trial in absentia

[pampango]

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/06/201161322911754656.html


The Tunisian revolution was the first and so far the most successful of a string of uprisings in the Arab world

Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia's former president who fled to Saudi Arabia in January, will be tried in absentia, Tunisia's interim prime minister said on Monday. "Ben Ali's trial will start on June 20," Beji Caid Sebsi said in an interview on Al Jazeera. "He will be tried in a military and in a civilian court."

In a statement released by his French lawyer, Ben Ali has slammed the trial as a "masquerade".

Ben Ali fled to Jeddah after he was toppled by mass protests on January 14 after 23 years in power. Several members of his family and some of his closest allies were detained shortly after he was forced out.

The caretaker authorities, trying to assert their authority and gain legitimacy in the eyes of protesters who forced the transition, are attacking the vestiges of his long rule. Meanwhile, several European countries have frozen assets belonging to Ben Ali and his entourage. Yet Saudi authorities have not responded to a request by Tunis to extradite Ben Ali and his wife Leila Trabelsi.