In a follow-up to Monday’s story, Tunisia’s ousted former President, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, was sentenced to a 35-year prison sentence for charges of embezzlement of state funds after a 6-hour tril. The former Tunisian President denounced the sentence as legally insane, with Mr. Ben Ali’s French lawyer, Jean Yves Le Borgne saying that the speedy verdict shows the lack of any vision of the future.
A US State Department Spokesperson, Viktoria Nuland, however, stated that Just the fact that there was a legal process is already progress, while the spokesperson for a France-based Tunisian rights group lamented that It is a big disappointment, the kind of charade of summary justice that the dictatorship had accustomed us to.
For two articles on the trial, sentence, and charges, please see articles from Yahoo! News and/or the Turkish Weekly. Please note that the photo of Mr. Ben Ali comes from a Swiss website, found here.
“
