"Tunisia’s ex-ruler, wife convicted of stealing; Both are in exile; verdicts carry little import" by Associated Press / June 21, 2011
TUNIS — Tunisia’s former ruler and his wife were convicted in absentia on embezzlement and other charges yesterday after $27 million in jewels and public funds were found in one of his palaces.
Five months after being forced from power, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Leila Trabelsi were sentenced to 35 years each in prison and fined tens of millions of dollars in the first of what is sure to be a long string of trials.
However, the trial in some ways failed to live up to its billing. With the 74-year-old Ben Ali not present for his judgment, there was a sense of frustration among many. The couple went into exile on Jan. 14 in Saudi Arabia, which failed to respond to an extradition request....
His much-detested wife’s Trabelsi clan, alleged to have operated as a mafia, had vast control over the economy of this North African country with stakes in everything from tourist hotels to banks or car dealerships and radio and television.
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