Tunisian ex-President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali Dies at 83 – Report

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, commonly known as Ben Ali was a long-serving Tunisian president between 1987 and 2011 when he was ousted as a result of a coup

Former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali passed away on Thursday after suffering a health crisis, the former president’s lawyer told Reuters.

“Ben Ali just died in Saudi Arabia,” the lawyer, Mounir Ben Salha, told Reuters.

Following the 2011 coup, Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia with his wife and three children, while the interim Tunisian government asked Interpol to issue an international arrest warrant. In 2012 and 2013, a Tunisian court and a military court sentenced him to life imprisonment both. In 2011, a court ruled to sentence his wife to 35 years in absentia.