Tunisia: Ex-President Ben Ali and wife handed fresh sentences

Tunisian ex-president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali and his wife, already convicted in absentia several times, have been issued with new 10-year prison sentences for corruption.

They were found guilty on Tuesday by a court in Tunis in a case involving “administrative and financial corruption”, according to prosecution spokesman Sofiene Sliti.

The case also saw two other officials convicted, including a former minister for the environment who was jailed for five years and another ministry official was sentenced to three years.

A relative of the exiled president’s wife, Leila Trabelsi, was also sentenced to three years in prison.

Ben Ali, who ruled Tunisia for 23 years, has been living in exile with his wife in Saudi Arabia since they fled the country during the 2011 revolution, seen by many as the beginning of the so-called “Arab Spring”.

Ben Ali was also sentenced to life imprisonment for the crackdown on demonstrations during the 2011 revolution, in which 338 people were killed