TUNIS: Hundreds of people demonstrated in central Tunis Monday to demand that members of the toppled Ben Ali regime be stopped from re-entering the political scene or escaping justice for alleged crimes.
The protest, the latest in a series in Tunisia since Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was forced out in January by a popular uprising, came days after courts freed two ministers in the former system who were facing corruption charges.
“End it with the dictatorship,” they chanted, demanding that figures from Ben Ali’s now dissolved Rally for Constitutional Democracy be kept out of the new, more democratic system.

“Not freedom nor a return for the group of RCDists,” they shouted, saying they were protecting the ideals of the uprising that ended Ben Ali’s 23 years in power.
“We want a break with the Ben Ali regime,” said Najiba Bakhtri from the General Labor Union.
“Elements from the former system are still present. They have integrated into new parties, under other names, but they are still active,” she said.

Student Khouloud Adouli added: “It is not normal that in Egypt a dictator president could be judged while in Tunisia, former ministers are free.”
An uprising in Egypt drove out president Hosni Mubarak, who went on trial last week for alleged corruption and over the killing of hundreds of demonstrators during the revolt.