By Philippe Sauvagnargues
Agence France Presse
TUNIS: Tunisian authorities came under fire Tuesday for their high-speed sentencing in absentia of ousted president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his wife to 35 years in jail for embezzling public funds.
The court’s quick verdict Monday after only six hours of deliberation on the first day of the trial was dismissed as a “charade” by some Tunisians and a “joke” by a Ben Ali lawyer.
“It is a big disappointment, the kind of charade of summary justice that the dictatorship had accustomed us to,” said Mouhieddine Cherbib of a France-based Tunisian rights group.
“We wanted a real trial, a fair one … a trial of the dictatorship with people who were tortured appearing as witnesses – a justice system from which you learn something,” Cherbib said, adding that high treason would have been a more appropriate charge.
Judge Touhami Hafi said the sentences, which exceeded the 20 years that had been widely predicted, would take immediate effect despite the couple living in Saudi Arabia, which has so far ignored Tunisia’s demands to extradite Ben Ali.
The former president denies any wrongdoing and in a statement released Monday said he had not intended to go into exile while condemning political developments in Tunisia since the end of his 23-year rule.
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