Ex-Tunisian president Ben Ali given 16 years for corruption

A court sentenced Tunisia's exiled former leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to 16 years in prison Thursday for corruption and property fraud, in the latest sentence handed to the ex-president. Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia last January after a popular revolt against his 23-year rule, has already been sentenced in his absence to a total of more than 50 years in two separate trials. On Thursday the court also handed down an eight-year prison sentence to Ben Ali's daughter and 16 years to his son-in-law Sakhr al-Materi over two separate cases. One involved the fraudulent acquisition of a plot of land in an upscale Tunis district following the "personal intervention" of the former president. The other concerned the acquisition of a plot in the same neighbourhood initially intended to be a park but subsequently reclassified as building land, considerably boosting its value. According to the indictment, the plots were acquired for 23 dinars (11.50 euros) per square metre, well below their real value of 350 dinars and then resold for 1,500 dinars per square metre. "The evidence shows that the ex-president committed violations and abuses of power in the two transactions," the prosecution said. The three were also ordered to pay millions of euros in damages. Hosni Beji, the lawyer for Nesrine and al-Materi, said the prosecution had "cooked up" its case. On July 4, a Tunis court sentenced Ben Ali to 15-and-a-half years in jail for possession of arms, drugs and archaeological artefacts -- and fined him 54,000 euros. And in June, Ben Ali and his wife Leila Trabelsi were sentenced to 35 years in prison and fined 45 million euros for misappropriating public funds after police found large sums of cash and jewellery in their palace. Ben Ali denounced his first conviction as a "parody of justice" and a "political liquidation" in a statement. He and his entourage face possible legal proceedings in around 180 other cases.