Tunisia: Death penalty demanded for the former President Ben Ali

This  case is before a military court of the city of El Kef in the northwest of the country that the prosecutor asked the court to convict Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and award the death penalty for involvement in the crackdown from January 2011 in Thala and Kasserine, which caused dozens of deaths.

Commentator's expressed surprise at the call for the death penalty in Ben Ali's case as there was no direct evidence against him although  former  prime minister Mohamed Ghannouchi did  alledge that he had called Ben Ali and warned him of the danger of police firing on demonstrators according to AP.

Accumulating some 71 years in prison and more than fifty million Euros in fines, from the convictions on over 135 cases ranging from murder to drug possession and misuse of public property, the former president, is  a refugee Saudi Arabia, and  remainsuntouchable given the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's refusal to respond to endless extradition requests sent to it by the Tunisian government.

Governments in Egypt,Tunisia and Libya are beset with problems over trials of former regime members and heads of state who have managed  to hide large sums of money in foreign bank accounts.

Hosni Mubarak will face the court which has called for the death penalty for him on 2 June.His fall from power has had a profound affect on the government's of Arab world because he was the first longstanding Arab head of state to stand trial in a court of law. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is thought to be unlikely to agree to Ben Ali's extradition to Tunisia and this was recognised by President Moncef Marzouki recently.