Ten years after the revolution that ousted him from power, the clan of dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, which had appropriated entire swathes of the Tunisian economy, is scattered around the world with varying fortunes.
Most have failed to answer for their actions in court. They captured 21% of the profits of the Tunisian private sector in 2010, according to the World Bank.
Ben Ali and his relatives
The deposed Tunisian president – convicted in absentia numerous times for homicide, torture and corruption – died at the age of 83 in September 2019 in exile in Saudi Arabia, where he was buried in secrecy, in the presence of his second wife and their three children. Leïla Trabelsi, nicknamed the “hairdresser” because of her supposed past profession, the dictator’s second wife and one of the regime’s most hated people, continues to enjoy her golden Saudi exile despite a myriad of convictions.
She resides in Jeddah with their son and youngest daughter Nessrine. The latter, according to the press, divorced in 2019 from her second husband, the Tunisian rapper K2Rhym, after a few months of marriage.
The Trabelsi clan
The brothers of Leïla Trabelsi, 64, are accused of having been the engines of the seizure of national property, which allowed the clan to reign over an empire ranging from large-scale distribution to real estate through the telephony, media or automotive. Among them, Belhassen Trabelsi, 58 – the fugitive brother. Extremely wealthy businessman considered the head of the clan, he fled by yacht to Italy on January 14, 2011, and came to Canada where he resided in an opulent apartment in Montreal until 2016. his asylum application, he fled.
He filed a case in 2016 with the transitional justice body, the Truth and Dignity Instance (IVD), to obtain reconciliation in return for a refund of embezzled funds. He offered a billion dinars (350 million euros), said the IVD, but the arbitration was not successful.
After three years on the run, he was arrested in March 2019 in the south of France. French justice is currently examining a request for extradition to Tunisia.
Next is Imed Trabelsi, 46, the prisoner. The best known member of the Trabelsi clan, nephew of Leïla Ben Ali, has been imprisoned in Tunisia since January 14, 2011, the day the president fell. Arrested as he was about to fly to France, he was sentenced in particular for fraud and corruption to 100 years in prison in total. On May 22, 2017, he delivered unprecedented public testimony on the well-oiled corruption system involving customs officials, senior officials and ministers.
He apologized to the Tunisian people, wishing to “turn the page” to find his family. A reconciliation agreement for money has been reached but he is still in prison. Two brothers of Leïla Trabelsi died in prison: Moncef Trabelsi, who died of a brain tumor in 2013 at the age of 69, and Mourad Trabelsi, who suffered from chronic diseases and died in April 2020 at the age of 65 – according to his family , for lack of care during a decade of detention.
The clan also counts, Sakher El Materi or the ghost, 39 years old. Nessrine’s first husband, often described as Ben Ali’s “favorite son-in-law” and presented as his potential dolphin, he took refuge in Qatar before being turned away at the end of 2012 and exiled to the Seychelles. According to the anti-corruption NGO I-Watch, he obtained Seychellois nationality but he would consider leaving the archipelago.
In 2017, he began negotiations with the Tunisian state under the aegis of the IVD to repent and be allowed to return to the country, offering to repay 500 million dinars. In vain at this point. His father, Moncef Materi, convicted of money laundering, was arrested in France in June 2017 during a cruise stopover, under an international arrest warrant issued in 2011 by a Tunisian judge. The Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal rejected his extradition in 2018.
As for Marouane Mabrouk, more discreet, he is the ex-husband of Cyrine Ben Ali, daughter of Ben Ali’s first marriage, this weighty businessman has kept a leading role although discreet. With his brothers, he co-directs one of the country’s main conglomerates, present in mass distribution (Monoprix, Géant), car dealerships (Fiat, Mercedes) and even banking. Accused of having made his business grow thanks to the largesse of his former father-in-law, he saw some of his property being frozen in 2011. He was able to recover part of it, including participation in the French telephone group Orange in 2019 following a disputed lifting of sanctions by the European Union, which paves the way for a buyout of this share by Orange.
Fate also did not spare Slim Chiboub, 61, he is nicknamed the repentant. Husband of Dorsaf, the second daughter of Ben Ali’s first marriage, former leader of the very popular football club Esperance in Tunis, he returned from exile to settle his accounts with justice. After putting an end to his exile in the United Arab Emirates in November 2014, he spent a year in prison and undertook, in exchange for the suspension of prosecution, to return the sums wrongly received accompanied by a fine. Despite this agreement, he was arrested again this summer.
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