Tunisian court slaps ex-president with life sentence

By Yusra Ouanes

TUNIS

Tunisian judicial officials on Tuesday sentenced former President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali -- in absentia -- to life behind bars for his involvement in the death of unarmed protesters during Tunisia’s 2011 popular uprising.

“Tunisia’s Military Court of Appeals sentenced the former president to life in prison in cases related to the martyrs and injured of the [2011] revolution,” read a statement released by Tunisia’s prosecutor-general and carried by the official TAP news agency.

“Forty other defendants in the same case received sentences of between two and eight years behind bars, while a number of others were acquitted,” the statement added.

Ben Ali and his wife, both of whom now reside in Saudi Arabia, were both earlier slapped with jail terms for corruption. The former president was also sentenced earlier to life in prison for killing demonstrators.

According to a 2012 report by an independent Commission of Inquiry, 338 demonstrators were killed -- and more than 2,000 injured -- during the 2011 uprising.