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19 September 2019The former president of Tunisia, Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, died at the age of 83 years. This was reported by Saudi satellite TV channel Arabiya, citing a lawyer for the former Tunisian rais who died today in the Saudi city of Jeddah

Deposed during the 2011 Jasmine Revolution, Ben Ali was 83 years old and in recent days had been admitted to Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia, because he was "very sick", as his daughter Halima had explained. His lawyer, Mounir Ben Salha, on that occasion had recalled that the former president had for years been in treatment for prostate cancer.

Ben Ali was the second president of the Republic of Tunisia since 7 November 1987, succeeding Habib Bourghiba with a coup. His mandate, which lasted for several legislatures, ended after 23 years, January 14, 2011, when a crescendo of popular protests, begun in 2010, forced him into exile in Saudi Arabia.