20110620
Xinhua
TUNIS, June 20 (Xinhua) -- The trial in absentia of former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his wife, Leila Trabelsi, began on Monday in Tunis, the state-run press agency TAP reported.



The trial under high security measure will be attended by hundreds of local and international observers and journalists. Ben Ali, his wife and two of his younger children fled to Saudi Arabia on Jan. 14 following a wave of popular protests against his 23- year rule.

A group of five Tunisian lawyers has been appointed to defend the former president and his wife, aided by a team composed of Lebanese and French lawyers. Tunisian judicial authorities have prepared 93 cases against the former president, however, initially he will be tried on charges of drug trafficking, money laundering, embezzlement and corruption, the report said.

The former president will also stand trial before a Tunis military tribunal which has charged him of 35 accounts including premeditated manslaughter, the murder of protestors and torture.

A Tunis military judge has issued an extradition request against the former president and his family, in conformity with the 1983 Arab Riyadh Judicial Cooperation Convention. However, Saudi authorities have not responded to the request yet.

On Sunday, Ben Ali's Lebanese lawyer Akram Azouri released a statement, saying the former president slammed the accusations against him. "He would like everyone to know this criminal prosecution is only a false and shameful image of a victor's trial, " said the statement.

In March, Tunisia's interim government announced the creation of a national commission tasked with the confiscation of the assets of the Tunisian president, his wife, as well as 114 of his family members. The commission identified 600 real estates and cars worthy of 3 billion dinars (nearly 2.4 billion U.S. dollars) belonging to the family, TAP said.