TUNIS: Tunisia’s former ruler and his wife were convicted in absentia on embezzlement and other charges on Monday after $27 million ($18.97 million) in jewels and public funds were found in one of his palaces.
They were sentenced to 35 years each in prison.
The conviction of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and Leila Trabelsi followed a day-long trial in absentia before the Tunis criminal court. The couple went into exile on Jan. 14 in Saudi Arabia after a month-long uprising that sparked a string of other uprisings in the Arab world.

Ben Ali, 74, vigorously denied the charges in a statement through his French lawyer, calling the proceedings a “shameful masquerade of the justice of the victorious.”
In a statement released by his lawyers ahead of the trial, the 74-year-old Ben Ali denied the charges against him. He insisted he was duped into fleeing January’s revolution, had not intended to go into exile and condemned political developments in Tunisia since the end of his 23-year rule.

“I did not abandon my post as president nor did I flee Tunisia, as some media have falsely reported … I was duped into leaving Tunis,” read a statement released by Ben Ali’s Beirut-based attorney Akram Azoury.
He said the prosecution was an attempt by Tunisia’s new leaders to distract attention from their failure to restore stability in the six months since he left the country.
Saudi Arabia did not respond to an extradition request, and some Tunisians expressed frustration that he would not be present for his judgment.

Judge Touhami Hafian, sitting in the Palace of Justice in the Tunisian capital, said the court would begin by hearing charges that Ben Ali was in unlawful possession of foreign currency, jewelry, archeological artefacts, drugs and weapons.
“This is a normal trial,” Hafian said.
Inside the packed Tunis court room, prosecutors presented two cases, an exercise they could have skipped as Ben Ali was absent.

In the first one, Ben Ali and his wife Leila Trabelsi are accused of stealing public funds, based the discovery of a trove of valuable jewels and cash in Tunisian and foreign currency at a palace in a village north of Tunis. Images of the cache shown on TV after the discovery shocked Tunisians.

The second case stems from the seizure of arms and drugs at the official presidential palace in Carthage during a search by a commission investigating abuse of authority formed after Ben Ali’s departure. He faced charges in that case of possessing and trafficking drugs, detention of arms and munitions and failing to declare archaeological works also found at the palace.

Since Ben Ali’s departure, most Tunisians have been preoccupied with deteriorating law and order and political instability as the caretaker authorities try to guide the country toward democracy.

But there is still deep-seated anger at Ben Ali’s rule, which many people say was characterized by repression and corruption on a grand scale involving members of Ben Ali’s extended family.
The Tunisian press, enjoying unprecedented freedom after years of state control, has carried numerous reports saying “The Family,” as Tunisians refer to them, had absconded from the country with large sums of money and gold.

More than 30 members of Ben Ali’s family and that of his wife, Leila Trabelsi, were arrested in the days following the fall of his regime. Some have since been charged with economic crimes and abuse of power. Angry protesters looted and vandalized the luxury villas they owned in upscale coastal suburbs early on.

Ben Ali and his family built up interests in many Tunisian companies and industries during his two decades in power, including in hotels, banks, tuna exports, construction, newspapers and pharmaceuticals.
Tunisian officials have vowed to recover Ben Ali’s assets and return them to the state. Ben Ali is also due to face a separate trial, in a Tunisian military court, on charges that include conspiring against the state and manslaughter.