Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, ousted Tunisian president, has been sentenced to life in prison by a military court for his role in the deadly repression during last year’s popular uprising.
Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Ben Ali, who is exiled in Saudi Arabia, over the killing of 22 people while trying to put down the revolt in the two central cities of Thala and Kasserine, AFP reported.
The ruling came after a six-month trial at the military court in Kef, about 170 kilometres west of Tunis. Former interior minister Rafik Belhaj Kacem was also sentenced to 12 years in jail over the case.
Earlier Wednesday, a Tunis military court sentenced Ben Ali in absentia to 20 years imprisonment on various charges including incitement to murder.
Ben Ali was found guilty of “inciting disorder, murder and looting,” the court said in its verdict over the deaths of four youths, shot dead in the town of Ouardanine in mid-January 2011.
Ben Ali faces countless trials and has already been sentenced to more than 66 years in prison on a range of other charges including drug trafficking and embezzlement.
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