Dubai: On November 7, 1987, Arab leaders were beginning to arrive at the Jordanian capital to attend the annual Arab summit, and the newest leader among them who joined the next day was Zine Al Abidine Bin Ali.
The news of Bin Ali’s bloodless coup d’état to oust the late president Habib Bourguiba, who was declared incompetent, received much attention at the time.
Bin Ali, who was appointed prime minister a month before the white coup, gave the impression he was not the type of politician to stay in power indefinitely against the will of people. But, as history proved, many people got the wrong impression.
Bin Ali was subsequently re-elected each time with vast majorities, each exceeding 90 per cent. The last election was held on October 25, 2009.
He came to be described as a dictator whose brutal regime put many restrictions on freedoms in the Northern African country. A few years after he came to power, Tunisia ranked near the bottom of most international rankings for human rights and freedoms, and was among the most repressive states in the world, according to several human rights watchdogs.
Bin Ali’s regime was also marred by widespread corruption, inflated food prices, generally poor conditions and high unemployment.
These socio-economic problems paved the way for the December 2010 revolution, dubbed as “Yasmine revolution.”
The ousting of Bin Ali was the culmination of protests that began after a young man in his 20s, Mohammad Bu Azizi set himself on fire on December 17, 2010, in a desperate protest against the harassment and humiliation he endured at the hands of a municipal official and her aides. The incident sparked a strong wave of protests across the country against the regime.
On January 14, 2011, Bin Ali officially resigned after fleeing his country to Saudi Arabia with his wife and three daughters, ending 23 years ruling Tunisia with an iron fist.
Before the unravelling of his regime, Bin Ali gave a “meek speech”, as some Tunisian citizens described it. “I got you,” he told the Tunisian people, meaning “I understood you”.
But in reply, one Tunisian citizen blogger wrote an article with the title “Too late”.
Surely, it was too late for many Tunisians. However, the pace of many accelerated developments in the following hours was hard to predict.
Initially, the former president promised to address the protester demands, including introducing policy reforms, offering job opportunities, ending corruption, reducing food prices, providing basic freedoms and promising not to run again for presidency in 2014. But the seething masses called for Bin Ali’s immediate resignation and for new elections on all levels.
Hours later, Bin Ali left Tunisia for Malta and the Prime Minister assumed executive power. Shortly afterwards, some Tunisian media announced the arrest of some of the ousted president’s relatives. By then, Bin Ali’s plane was heading towards the Gulf region, where it landed in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia in the early hours of January 15, 2011, where he has been living since.
Tunisian authorities have accused Bin Ali of money laundering, drug trafficking, theft, unlawful possession of cash and jewellery. The former president faces three prison sentences in absentia: two life sentences for inciting violence, violent repression of protests in Sfax and murder, and a third sentence was for 35 years in prison.
Very little is known about him in his country of exile. There were reports that he had suffered a stroke, and was in critical condition. But this information has never been confirmed or denied. On June 2011, Ben Ali’s attorney, Jean-Yves Leborgne, was quoted as saying that Bin Ali “is not in the state that he’s said to be in” and that “a meeting with his client took place under ‘normal circumstances’”.
Some Arabic-language media outlets quoted Bin Ali as saying earlier this year in an interview with the French-language website “Tunisie-Secret” that he never gave orders to security forces to shoot the protestors, and he was not planning to leave Tunisia for good.
He left Tunisia after “he was persuaded that his life and his family members’ lives were in danger and their security can’t be guaranteed,” he was quoted as saying in the interview.
While he defended himself against all the charges, he added he was hoping to return to his country after sending his family to Saudi Arabia.
“Although I personally gave no orders, I take my responsibilities as head of state. I am ready to answer to an independent court of all charges against me,” he was quoted as saying.
Bin Ali is living in Saudi Arabia, with his second wife, Laila Taraboulsi and their three children.
Bin Ali has three more children from his first wife.
According to Bin Ali Biographies, the former Tunisian president, who was born in 1936, never completed secondary school. However, he received training at western military schools in France and the US. His military career began in in 1964 as a Tunisian staff officer. During his military service, he established the Military Security Department and directed its operations for 10 years. He served as military attache to Morocco and Spain before he was appointed as General Director of National Security in 1977.
In 1980, he was appointed Ambassador to Poland, and later he served as Minister of State in charge of the interior before becoming the interior minister in 1986. In October, 1987, he was appointed Prime Minister by Habib Bourguiba, the president he ousted.
