Tunisian President Kais Saied called for the need to recover the stolen money of the Tunisian people in the countries of the European Union, while the Public Prosecution of the Court of Appeal in Aux-en-Provence (southern France) renewed its request for judges to approve the deportation of Belhassen Trabelsi, son-in-law of the late Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Said added, during his meeting with the Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Silva at Carthage Palace, that a committee from the Presidency of the Republic is in charge of following up on this file.
Last September, Tunisian President Kais Said announced the formation of a committee of the presidency to deal with the file of looted funds deposited abroad, during the rule of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Tunisia has not officially announced the value of the money that the former president and his close associates smuggled to foreign banks.
But the Tunisian Financial Transparency Organization (non-governmental), estimated that money at 23 billion dollars.
In 2015, the Tunisian Central Bank announced that it had identified looted property and funds in 10 countries, namely Switzerland, France, Canada, and Belgium, in addition to the UAE, Germany, Italy, Spain, Lebanon and Luxembourg.
For his part, Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Silva expressed Portugal's intention to continue supporting Tunisia, especially with regard to the file of retrieving the stolen funds, according to a statement by the Tunisian presidency.
French authorities arrested Belhassen Al-Trabelsi, son-in-law of ousted President Zine Abidine Ben Ali, in March 2019 (social networking sites)
Belhassan Trabelsi
In a related context, the Public Prosecution Office of the Appeals Court in Aux-en-Provence renewed its request to the judges to approve the deportation of Belhassen Trabelsi, son-in-law of the late Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
The appeals court is expected to issue its decision on January 27th.
Belhassan Trabelsi, 58, was arrested in France in March 2019, after he left Canada, which had rejected his application for political asylum.
Trabelsi fled Tunisia 10 years ago, following the fall of the Ben Ali regime.
Tunisia is calling for his deportation to stand trial in 5 ongoing cases or in which there have been judgments.
Al-Trabelsi was sentenced in absentia to 33 years in prison for economic and financial crimes.
The Appeals Court of Aux-en-Provence did not issue a ruling on his extradition on September 16, and the Tunisian authorities demanded clarifications about the appeals that he can resort to following his conviction.
On June 24, the Public Prosecution Office demanded approval for his deportation.
"The Tunisian state has committed to allowing him to appeal (the judgments) and to have him retried," said Prosecutor Donny Vonbrommerch on Wednesday.
He added that the Tunisian state had provided clarifications, while Belhassen Trabelsi spoke of a risk of ill-treatment, pointing to the death of 3 of his brothers in prison after the revolution.
In 2016, Trabelsi had submitted a file to the Tunisian Truth and Dignity Commission to demand reconciliation with the state in exchange for returning stolen money.
It proposed to provide one billion dinars (350 million euros), according to the authority
But the arbitration was not successful.
The Ben Ali family and his wife controlled sectors of the Tunisian economy, and received 21% of the profits of the Tunisian private sector in 2010, according to the World Bank.