19:17 ET<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nTunisia’s ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia in January, is to go on trial in absentia on 20 June.<\/p>\n
Announcing the date, interim Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi said Saudi Arabia had not replied to requests to hand him over.<\/p>\n
Charges range from conspiring against the state to drug trafficking.<\/p>\n
A lawyer for the Mr Ben Ali, whose 23-year rule ended in mass protests, has dismissed the trial as a “masquerade”.<\/p>\n
Both the former leader and his wife, Leila Trabelsi, face charges.<\/p>\n
His overthrow inspired protesters across the Arab world, from Egypt to Yemen.<\/p>\n
‘Sacrificial lamb’<\/span><\/p>\n“I am announcing it for the first time, the trial will start on the 20th,” Mr Essebsi told al-Jazeera TV.<\/p>\n
“He will be tried in a military and in a civilian court.”<\/p>\n
The Tunisian authorities say the first charges will relate to the discovery of cash, weapons and drugs in presidential palaces, AFP news agency reports.<\/p>\n
Almost 2kg (4.4lb) of drugs, believed to be cannabis, and $27m (\u00a316.4m; 18.7m euros) in cash were allegedly found.<\/p>\n
The authorities are also investigating cases of murder, abuse of power, trafficking of archaeological artefacts and money laundering.<\/p>\n
Speaking recently to AFP, Mr Ben Ali’s lawyer in France, Jean-Yves Le Borgne, poured scorn on the charges.<\/p>\n
The former leader was “tired of being made a sacrificial lamb by lies and injustice”, he said.<\/p>\n
“The searches conducted in his official and personal offices are just stage-dressing designed to discredit him,” he added.<\/p>\n
“The case that Tunisia is building against him is nothing but a masquerade which serves no purpose other than to mark a symbolic break with the past.”<\/p>\n
Several members of Mr Ben Ali’s family and some of his closest allies were arrested shortly after he was forced out.<\/p>\n
A number of European countries have also frozen assets belonging to the ex-leader.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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