{"id":35909,"date":"2019-03-17T16:22:40","date_gmt":"2019-03-17T16:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=35909"},"modified":"2019-03-17T16:22:40","modified_gmt":"2019-03-17T16:22:40","slug":"tunisia-seeks-extradition-of-ben-ali-brother-in-law-from-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=35909","title":{"rendered":"Tunisia seeks extradition of Ben Ali brother-in-law from France"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"body-200771816342556199\" readability=\"87.5957565606\">\n<p class=\"speakable\"><span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/country\/tunisia.html\">Tunisia<\/a>\u00a0has said it is seeking the extradition of deposed President\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/people\/zine-el-abidine-ben-ali.html\">Zine El Abidine Ben Ali<\/a>&#8216;s brother-in-law, who has been arrested in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/country\/france.html\">France<\/a>\u00a0and is wanted at home for alleged fraud.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\"><span>The justice ministry said in a statement on Saturday it had learned from the Interpol office in Tunis that Belhassen Trabelsi was arrested on Thursday in France.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\"><span>It said he was facing 17 arrest warrants in Tunisia and 43 international warrants.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Tunisian media reported that the ministry of justice had sent a letter to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday asking France to hand over Trabelsi in accordance with the bilateral agreements between the two countries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>There was no official confirmation in France of Trabelsi&#8217;s arrest.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>But a source close to the investigation said he had been arrested in the south of the country earlier this week in connection with alleged financial wrongdoing. There were no further details.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The millionaire businessman and brother of Ben Ali&#8217;s wife Leila Trabelsi left Tunisia in January 2011 when the Arab Spring uprising forced the veteran leader to flee to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/country\/saudi-arabia.html\">Saudi Arabia<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span>Trabelsi and his family flew in a private jet to Montreal where he requested political asylum but\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/country\/canada.html\">Canada<\/a>\u00a0turned down his appeal in 2015, and a year later, as it prepared to deport him, he vanished.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>He is wanted in Tunisia where he is thought to have headed a clan that embezzled government funds.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>A leaked June 2008\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/country\/united-states.html\">United States<\/a>\u00a0diplomatic cable concluded that Trabelsi was &#8220;the most notorious [Ben Ali] family member and is rumored to have been involved in a wide-range of corrupt schemes.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Trabelsi &#8211; whose holdings included an airline and hotels &#8211; has denied the allegations against him, saying he accumulated his wealth from being a successful entrepreneur.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div readability=\"32\">\n<p>\n            SOURCE:<br \/>\n            <span>Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tunisia\u00a0has said it is seeking the extradition of deposed President\u00a0Zine El Abidine Ben Ali&#8217;s brother-in-law, who has been arrested in\u00a0France\u00a0and is wanted at home for alleged fraud. The justice ministry said in a statement on Saturday it had learned from the Interpol office in Tunis that Belhassen Trabelsi was arrested on Thursday in France. It&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35909\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}