Tunisia Convicts Former President

A Tunis criminal court on Monday convicted Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia's deposed president, of embezzling state funds, and sentenced him to 35 years in prison, the first conviction of a North African ruler since the start of the Arab Spring revolution that has swept the Middle East.

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Associated Press

A demonstrator, right, wears a poster showing Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia's deposed president, at the Tunis Criminal Court on Monday.

Leila Trabelsi, Mr. Ben Ali's wife, was convicted on the same count and received an equal sentence, said lawyers the court appointed to represent the couple, who reside in Saudi Arabia and weren't present.

The former president also was fined 41 million Tunisian dinars ($29.6 million), equivalent to money seized at one of his residences weeks after Mr. Ben Ali left the country in January, and formed the basis of the embezzlement charge, the court-appointed lawyers said. In addition, he was ordered to pay 50 million dinars in damages to the Tunisian people, they said.

Mr. Ben Ali, who has denied the charges through a Lebanese lawyer, couldn't be reached. Abdesattar Massoudi, one of the court-appointed lawyers, said Mr. Ben Ali and his wife would have to come back to Tunisia if they wished to appeal their convictions.

"They were tried in absentia, but can't lodge appeal in absentia," he said.

Akram Azouri, the Lebanese lawyer, said before the verdict that Mr. Ben Ali was in no rush to come back to Tunisia "to be made a scapegoat."

The evidence that was brought against Mr. Ben Ali during the trial also included weapons and narcotics found at another of Mr. Ben Ali's mansions in Tunisia. (Ms. Trabelsi isn't a defendant in that case.)

Judge Touhami Hafian adjourned the trial on the arms-possession and drug-trafficking charges, which Mr. Ben Ali has denied, to give lawyers more time to read through court documents. A verdict in that case is due on June 30.

Tunisia's judicial authorities have said they would level more charges against Mr. Ben Ali in coming weeks and months.

Monday's expeditious trial and conviction of Mr. Ben Ali could help Tunisia's interim government recover some of the assets the former president allegedly owned overseas.

In January, the Swiss government ordered the country's banks to freeze any assets belonging to Mr. Ben Ali, his family or close associates. Bern subsequently said the banks froze 60 million Swiss francs ($70.7 million) of assets, although the government hasn't disclosed the names of the banks or which members of the Ben Ali regime controlled the money. In order to hand the money back to Tunis, the Swiss government says it needs proof the frozen assets were the proceeds of illicit activity.

Mr. Ben Ali's conviction could provide such proof, although a Swiss judge would still have to determine that the offense is also a crime in Switzerland and that the trial met Swiss legal standards.

Mr. Ben Ali is also the target of a probe in France. Last week, Paris prosecutors said they had launched an investigation into alleged money laundering by the former president and would examine whether Mr. Ben Ali owned assets in France acquired with state funds.

Mr. Azouri, Mr. Ben Ali's Lebanese lawyer, said his client owns no real estate, and no money in bank accounts in France, Switzerland or any other foreign country.