Ben Ali Corruption Trial Begins

The Daily Telegraph reports:

Tunisia's former autocratic ruler, whose overthrow triggered a series of Arab world uprisings, went on trial in absentia Monday in the first of what will likely be a long series of court proceedings five months after he went into exile.

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who is in exile in Saudi Arabia, is being tried in absentia at the Tunis criminal court.

The court is hearing two embezzlement, money laundering and drug trafficking cases against Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. It follows the discovery of around $27 million in jewels and cash plus drugs and weapons at two palaces outside Tunis after he flew to Saudi Arabia on Jan. 14.

Ben Ali, 74, vigorously denied the charges in a statement through his French lawyer, calling the proceedings a "shameful masquerade of the justice of the victorious."

Ben Ali and his wife Leila Trabelsi are both charged in one of the two cases before the court Monday - the discovery of about $27 million in jewels and foreign and Tunisian currency at a palace in a village north of Tunis.