Tunisian ex-leader to stand trial

By
-
0
76
Charles Kazooba 16 May 2011 Nairobi — Rwanda is seeking support from the East Africa Community partner states to crush a new rebel group based in the DR Congo. Kigali has started sharing intelligence information as it builds a case for a possible intervention against the new group, which threatens to scuttle peacebuilding in the volatile Great Lakes region. The Rwanda army leadership says intelligence chiefs from the East African Community partner states and the United Nations are still analysing data on the group, allegedly formed by two Rwandan dissidents, Col Patrick Karegeya and Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa, who fell out with President Paul Kagame a few years ago.

13 June 2011 Last updated at 17:57 ET

The trial of ousted Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali will begin on 20 June, the country’s interim prime minister has said.

Mr Ali fled to Saudi Arabia after he was toppled by mass protests in mid-January, after 23 years in power.

He and his associates, who face 90 charges, will be tried in absentia in both a military and a civilian court.

Interim PM Beji Caid Essebsi said Saudi authorities had not replied to requests to hand over the former president.

“I am announcing it for the first time, the trial will start on the 20th,” Mr Essebsi told al-Jazeera television.

Tunisia’s new authorities are preparing to try him and his wife, Leila Trabelsi, on drugs, guns and graft charges in absentia, AFP reports.

Initial charges against him will relate to the discovery of cash, weapons and drugs in presidential palaces.

This includes almost 2kg (4.4lbs) of drugs, believed to cannabis, and $27m (£16.4m; 18.7m euros) in cash.

Mr Ali’s lawyer has described the trial as a “masquerade”.

View article:
Tunisian ex-leader to stand trial