Tunisia: Former Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has been sentenced to 16 years in prisoner in absentia for corruption and property fraud charges.
The former leader ran away to Saudi Arabia in January after a revolution against his 23-year dictatorship.
A Tunis’ court was tackling two separate cases against Ben Ali and his relatives on Thursday, media reported.
One case is the fraudulent acquisition of a plot of land in an upscale Tunis district by Ben Ali’s daughter Nesrine and his son-in-law Sakhr al-Materi following the “personal intervention” of the former leader.
In the second case, Ben Ali and al-Materi, who took refuge in Qatar, are accused of having acquired a plot in the same neighborhood initially intended to be a park but subsequently reclassified as building land, considerably boosting its value.
On Thursday, Nesrine was also sentenced to eight years in jail and al-Materi to 16 years on the same charges.
Ben Ali has already been sentenced in his absence to a total of more than 50 years in prison in two separate trials.
