By Annie Thomas Agence

France Press

PARIS: Deposed and exiled Tunisian autocrat Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali broke his silence Monday to denounce his imminent trial on corruption charges as a “masquerade,” according to his French lawyer.
“Tired of being made a sacrificial lamb by lies and injustice, President Ben Ali has exceptionally dropped his discretion,” Jean-Yves Le Borgne, who represents the former leader in France, said in a statement.
Ben Ali fled Tunisia in January following a revolt against his 23-year rule and is thought to be in Saudi Arabia. Family members say he suffered a stroke in February and he has made no public appearances.
Tunisia’s new authorities are preparing to try him and his wife Leila Trabelsi on drugs, guns and graft charges in absentia.

The French statement represents the first time the 74-year-old leader has spoken out since fleeing Tunis, even indirectly, and is the first sign he plans to fight the various legal challenges hanging over him.
“The searches conducted in his official and personal offices are just stage-dressing designed to discredit him,” Le Borgne alleged.
“The case that Tunisia is building against him is nothing but a masquerade which serves no purpose other than to mark a symbolic break with the past.”

The French lawyer said he was working alongside Ben Ali’s main counsel, the renowned Lebanese jurist Akram Azouri, to represent his client’s interests in Paris, capital of Tunisia’s former colonial power.
But he insisted that reports that the ousted strongman has significant assets in France are false, declaring that he has “no real estate, no bank accounts in France and none in any other foreign country.”
And he alleged that Ben Ali was the victim of a smear campaign designed to make him and his family appear to be solely responsible for the problems that led to the Tunisian revolt.
But anti-graft watchdogs have lodged a formal complaint alleging looted Tunisian funds are being held in France and a formal inquiry has begun.

In Tunisia, the justice ministry said Friday that trials could begin as early as in the coming days or weeks.
“The investigating magistrates have completed their inquiries,” the ministry’s spokesman Kadhem Zine al-Abidine said.