BEN ALI GETS 20 YEARS JAIL IN ABSENTIA

A Tunisian military court on June 12 sentenced ousted ruler Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali to 20 years in jail in absentia for inciting “murder and looting” during a police attempt to smuggle his nephew out of the country during last year’s revolt. The case involves the death of four protesters, who were shot by police in the coastal town of Wardanein, as they tried to prevent Qais Ben Ali – now in jail in Tunisia – from fleeing on Jan. 15, 2011 a day after the president left the country. Several of Ben Ali’s aides also received sentences of five to 10 years in jail.

Ben Ali has already been sentenced to decades in jail – also in absentia – on charges ranging from corruption to torture and faces more charges. Last month, a Tunisian military prosecutor demanded that the death penalty be imposed on the former strongman for his role in the deaths of hundreds of protesters in the central Tunisian towns where the Arab Spring began last year. No senior officials have so far been convicted for the deaths of more than 300 people in last year’s uprising, angering the families of the dead and raising pressure on the Tunisian government to ensure that justice is done.