Ben Ali

A Tunisian court has granted a defense request to postpone the trial of 23 relatives and close collaborators of ousted Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali for about a week. The defendants face charges including illegal possession of foreign currency, jewelry trafficking and attempted flight. If convicted, they could be sentenced to up to five years in prison and face hefty fines. The defendants include Ben Ali's security chief, Ali Seriati. The trial began last month but judges have twice granted defense requests seeking to postpone the proceedings, with the hearings...

The prosecution of a military tribunal demanded the death penalty for Tunisia's former dictator over his role in the deaths of protesters during the popular uprising that overthrew him a year ago. Zine El Abidine Ben Ali is being tried in absentia by both military and civilian courts in Tunisia for alleged crimes committed during his 23-year iron-fisted rule of the North African country. The state news agency reported late Wednesday that Ben Ali is now on trial for the deaths of protesters in the four southern towns of Thala, Kasserine, Kairouan and Tajerouine, during the early...

TUNIS - Authorities announced mass participation in Tunisia’s presidential and legislative elections yesterday and predicted another reelection for President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who warned opponents they would face legal retaliation if they questioned the vote’s fairness. Ben Ali’s Constitutional and Democratic Rally, or RCD, had prepared balloons with the party colors to let out when preliminary results are released today, and supporters cheered in the streets of the capital in anticipation of a party victory.

TUNIS - Masses of Tunisians marched in peaceful triumph yesterday to mark the one-year anniversary of the revolution that ended the dictatorship of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and sparked uprisings around the Arab world. Tunisia greeted the anniversary with prudent optimism, amid worries about high unemployment that cast a shadow over their pride at transforming the country. Now a human rights activist is president, and a moderate Islamist jailed for years by the old regime is prime minister at the head of a diverse coalition, after the freest elections in Tunisia's history.

The prosecution of a military tribunal demanded the death penalty for Tunisia's former dictator over his role in the deaths of protesters during the popular uprising that overthrew him a year ago. Zine El Abidine Ben Ali is being tried in absentia by both military and civilian courts in Tunisia for alleged crimes committed during his 23-year iron-fisted rule of the North African country. The state news agency reported late Wednesday that Ben Ali is now on trial for the deaths of protesters in the four southern towns of Thala, Kasserine, Kairouan and Tajerouine, during the early...

Italian officials have seized a yacht said to have belonged to the family of deposed Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The 14-meter (45-foot) boat was anchored in the port of Italy’s southern island of Lampedusa. The LaPresse news agency said Tunisian authorities had asked Italy to seize any property owned by the family on the ground that it belongs to the Tunisian people. Ben Ali went into exile in Saudi Arabia. The report says the Atlantique 43, seized by financial police Wednesday, is worth euro1 million ($1.4 million)

TUNIS — Tunisia’s interior minister suspended all activities of the country’s former ruling party yesterday amid the most serious protests since the country’s autocratic president fled into exile less than a month ago. Fahrat Rajhi suspended all meetings of the Democratic Constitutional Rally, known as the RCD, and ordered all party offices or meeting places it owns closed, a ministry statement said. The RCD embodied the policies of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the former president who fled into exile Jan. 14 after a month of nationwide antigovernment protests.

A long-suppressed Tunisian rights group has been allowed to hold its annual congress for the first time in 11 years, and it is calling on the country's next leaders to ensure independent courts, women's rights and the end of capital punishment. The Tunisian League for Human Rights was barred from holding its gathering under autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Ben Ali was ousted by a popular uprising this year that prompted revolts around the Arab world. Outgoing league president Mokhtar Trifi said, "It's like a dream.

TUNIS — The leader of a long-outlawed Tunisian Islamist party returned home yesterday after two decades in exile, saying in his first interview on arrival that his views are moderate and that his Westward-looking country has nothing to fear. Rachid Ghanouchi and about 70 other exiled members of Ennahdha, or Renaissance, flew home from Britain two weeks after autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced from power by violent protests. At the airport, thousands of people welcomed him, cheering and shouting “God is great!

TUNIS — Police in Tunisia cracked down yesterday on key allies of the ousted president, placing two high-ranking officials under house arrest and detaining the head of a well-known private TV station for allegedly trying to slow down the country’s nascent steps toward democracy. The measures against former cronies and supporters of deposed President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali came amid continued street protests in the North African country’s capital, Tunis, and efforts by the tenuous interim government to heed the incessant groundswell of...

THE ARAB Spring has become markedly less innocent, as events in Libya, Syria, and Bahrain have turned the once-promising hopes that reform would peacefully sweep the Middle East and North Africa into a more violent saga. It was welcome news this weekend, then, when Tunisia, the first Arab country to topple its dictator, became the first country to hold an election since the wave of revolutions began. The moderate Islamic al Nahda party has won the plurality of votes in an election that was peaceful and well-organized.

Facts and figures about Tunisia, which on Sunday is holding its first truly free elections since 1956 independence: –– GEOGRAPHY: Tunisia lies in the center of North Africa, sandwiched between Algeria to the west and Libya to the east. Its 63,170 square miles (163,610 square kilometers) consists of fertile coast and mountains in the north, with a dry plain in the center and Sahara Desert to the south. It is about the size of Florida and a bit larger than Greece. –– POPULATION: Tunisia has a population of around 10 million people, overwhelmingly Arab and Muslim.

A long-suppressed Tunisian rights group has been allowed to hold its annual congress for the first time in 11 years, and it is calling on the country's next leaders to ensure independent courts, women's rights and the end of capital punishment. The Tunisian League for Human Rights was barred from holding its gathering under autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Ben Ali was ousted by a popular uprising this year that prompted revolts around the Arab world. Outgoing league president Mokhtar Trifi said, "It's like a dream.

A Tunisian court has granted a defense request to postpone the trial of 23 relatives and close collaborators of ousted Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali for about a week. The defendants face charges including illegal possession of foreign currency, jewelry trafficking and attempted flight. If convicted, they could be sentenced to up to five years in prison and face hefty fines. The defendants include Ben Ali's security chief, Ali Seriati. The trial began last month but judges have twice granted defense requests seeking to postpone the proceedings, with the hearings...

Italian officials have seized a yacht said to have belonged to the family of deposed Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The 14-meter (45-foot) boat was anchored in the port of Italy’s southern island of Lampedusa. The LaPresse news agency said Tunisian authorities had asked Italy to seize any property owned by the family on the ground that it belongs to the Tunisian people. Ben Ali went into exile in Saudi Arabia. The report says the Atlantique 43, seized by financial police Wednesday, is worth euro1 million ($1.4 million)

TUNIS — Tunisia’s interior minister suspended all activities of the country’s former ruling party yesterday amid the most serious protests since the country’s autocratic president fled into exile less than a month ago. Fahrat Rajhi suspended all meetings of the Democratic Constitutional Rally, known as the RCD, and ordered all party offices or meeting places it owns closed, a ministry statement said. The RCD embodied the policies of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the former president who fled into exile Jan. 14 after a month of nationwide antigovernment protests.

TUNIS, Tunisia — At least 11 people have died in clashes with security forces in new rioting in Tunisia, where unrest is in its fourth week, local union officials said yesterday. The Interior Ministry said eight people were killed over the weekend in the North African country’s western towns of Thala and Kasserine. Rioting to protest joblessness and other social ills has scarred numerous cities across this tiny country since Dec. 17, after a man with a university degree set himself on fire when police confiscated his fruits and vegetables for selling without a permit.

TUNIS - Masses of Tunisians marched in peaceful triumph yesterday to mark the one-year anniversary of the revolution that ended the dictatorship of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and sparked uprisings around the Arab world. Tunisia greeted the anniversary with prudent optimism, amid worries about high unemployment that cast a shadow over their pride at transforming the country. Now a human rights activist is president, and a moderate Islamist jailed for years by the old regime is prime minister at the head of a diverse coalition, after the freest elections in Tunisia's history.

TUNIS — The leader of a long-outlawed Tunisian Islamist party returned home yesterday after two decades in exile, saying in his first interview on arrival that his views are moderate and that his Westward-looking country has nothing to fear. Rachid Ghanouchi and about 70 other exiled members of Ennahdha, or Renaissance, flew home from Britain two weeks after autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced from power by violent protests. At the airport, thousands of people welcomed him, cheering and shouting “God is great!