Tunisia’s Ben Ali sentenced to jail in absentia
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13850227
A Tunisian court has sentenced ousted Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his wife Leila to 35 years in prison for theft and other charges.
The couple, who left Tunisia for Saudi Arabia after a popular uprising in January, were being tried in absentia.
The court also ordered them to pay a $66m (£41m) fine.
The trial began on Monday on accusations of theft, corruption and drug smuggling, which the former president had denied.
The presiding judge also said that a verdict on other charges – relating to illegal possession of drugs and weapons – would be announced on 30 June.
In a statement issued earlier on Monday, Ben Ali said he had taken his family to Saudi Arabia on 14 January for safety.
He said he had intended to return to Tunisia immediately, but the plane left without him, “disobeying my instructions”.
Ben Ali’s lawyers had argued that the trial was an attempt by Tunisia’s interim government to divert attention from their failure to restore stability in the country.
The Saudi authorities have yet to respond to an extradition request from Tunisia for the couple.
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please note ben ali and saleh from yemen are both in saudi arabia..will they release them?
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Talking about the Arab Awakening, I just had this little thing published in a mainstream newspaper: “The Arab Awakening and the never-ending Cold War” (22 June 2011) — http://t.co/mdyly4E
In the wake of 26-year old Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation in Tunisia, a great many changes have swept the Arab world, most notably President Mubarak’s removal from office in Cairo and the flaring up of armed resistance against Colonel Gadhafi’s regime in Tripoli.
In the wake of 26-year old Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation in Tunisia, a great many changes have swept the Arab world, most notably President Mubarak’s removal from office in Cairo and the flaring up of armed resistance against Colonel Gadhafi’s regime in Tripoli. In view of Libya’s armed insurrection, reports that Gadhafi’s forces were bombing civilian targets in Libya spread like wildfire on the world’s media by early March.
But, Russia’s military chiefs at the time were monitoring Libya from space – and their pictures told a different story. According to Al Jazeera and the BBC, on Feb. 22, the Libyan government inflicted airstrikes on Benghazi and on the capital Tripoli. However, the Russian military came out saying nothing of the sort was transpiring on the ground. In fact, the Russian military stated attacks on civilians reported by the global media never took place. Global attention particularly focused on the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, which seemed to face imminent annihilation at the hands of Gadhafi’s troops.
United States President Obama duly went to the United Nations and subsequently the Security Council passed resolution 1973, authorizing its member states to implement a “no-fly zone . . . [and] to take all necessary measures to protect civilians under threat of attack in the country, including Benghazi, while excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory.” As a result of this “no-fly zone,” actually denoting a sustained air campaign and the recent deployment of armed helicopters, the civil war in Libya has now in fact become a U.N.-assisted rebellion against Gadhafi, an enemy of the West since President Reagan. Russia has vehemently opposed allied involvement.
congrats sitanbul..nice work
Why, thank you . . .