Tunisia, April 16: Tunisian demonstrators have rallied outside the Saudi embassy in the capital Tunis to demand the extradition of ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali from Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi embassy in Tunis witnessed around 300 peaceful protesters coming from the Friday prayers and demanding that Riyadh hand over Ben Ali to stand trial on corruption charges in his home country,
Tunisian authorities had earlier prepared 18 legal cases against the deposed president. The cases include voluntary manslaughter and drug trafficking.
Tunisia’s Justice Minister Lazhar Karoui Chebbi also said his ministry has prepared cases against 44 of Ben Ali’s ministers.
“We demand that the Saudi government bring back Ben Ali to Tunisia so that he can be judged by the people in front of everyone, because he has stolen our money. He must come back to this country so that he can be judged,” said a demonstrator.
The demonstrators hurled shoes at a plastic effigy of Ben Ali, while a mock trial was also held in which they gave the ex-president a death sentence.
“The question is if these cases have any legal weight to extradite the ousted president. I think the answer is yes,” said Ghazi Gherairi of the International Academy of Constitutional Law.
Some women also carried photographs of their sons who were killed by Ben Ali’s security forces.
On January 14, nationwide protests in Tunisia resulted in the overthrow of longtime President Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia.
Tunisia announced later that it had asked Interpol to help arrest Ben Ali, his wife Leila Trabelsi and other members of the ruling family who fled the country during the Tunisian revolution.
On March 7, Tunisian authorities appointed a new government in a move to rid the country of Ben Ali’s notorious state security apparatus.
—-Agencies