Ben Ali, allies lose appeal of torture conviction

Oman Daily Observer

TUNIS — A military appeals court in Tunis yesterday upheld the convictions of Tunisia’s ousted president and his top officials for torturing army officers over an alleged coup plot, judicial sources said. “The verdict was pronounced on Saturday in a closed door session,” said one of the defence lawyers, Abada Kefi, who said he would take the case to a higher court.

The appeals court confirmed the five-year prison sentence handed down in absentia against Tunisia’s ex-strongman Zine al Abidine Ben Ali, who fled the country in January 2011 after a popular revolt and has been living in exile in Saudi Arabia, a military judicial source said. Ben Ali’s ex-collaborators, including former interior minister Abdallah Kallel and head of state security Mohamed Ali Ganzoui, had their four-year prison sentences reduced by half.

Defence lawyers had argued that the accusations were baseless and charged that the trial was politically motivated. “There is no evidence. The case touches on what was a state security issue in 1991 and Ben Ali would not allow anyone close,” Kallel’s lawyer Kefi said. The case is known as the “Bakaret Essahel affair”, named after a village 45 km south of the capital Tunis where officers were accused of holding secret meetings in 1991 with a view to toppling Ben Ali.

They were handed over to the interior ministry by their superior and are alleged to have been severely tortured in cells of the state security services. Most leading figures in Ben Ali’s government either fled or were arrested after last year’s uprising and Tunisia is now governed by a coalition of former opposition parties. — AFP

Swiss: Gadhafi clique stashed $416 million

MSNBC

GENEVA — Switzerland has found 360 million Swiss francs, nearly $416 million, of potentially illegal assets linked to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and his circle stashed in the Alpine country, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday. 

Some 410 million Swiss francs ($474 million) traced to former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and 60 million Swiss francs ($69 million) linked to former Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali have also been identified, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lars Knuchel said.

"In the case of Libya, it was 360 million Swiss francs," Knuchel told Reuters. "These amounts are frozen in Switzerland following blocking orders by the Swiss government related to potentially illegal assets in Switzerland."

Both Tunisia and Egypt — where unrest led to the ousting of Ben Ali and Mubarak — are in touch with Swiss judicial authorities regarding their formal requests for legal assistance to seek return of the funds, according to Knuchel.

No such discussions are underway with authorities in Libya, where Gadhafi is clinging to power in the face of an uprising and NATO air strikes.

Neutral Switzerland had previously announced that it was freezing any assets linked to the three North African leaders, thereby requiring financial and other institutions to report any suspicious funds.
The respective amounts were fairly "stable," based on information provided by Swiss-based financial institutions to authorities, Knuchel said. He declined to name the banks or the regions in which the accounts or properties are held.

Tunisia and Egypt haven't yet provided information about possible criminal wrongdoing that is required to start unblocking the frozen assets of ousted presidents Ben Ali and Mubarak, the Swiss government said.

The Swiss government sent diplomatic cables to Tunisia and Egypt in late March explaining that those governments must submit evidence of any criminal wrongdoing involving the money so Swiss authorities can decide whether the offenses also would be punished in Switzerland.
Switzerland froze assets linked to Tunisia's ousted president and 40 people in his entourage on Jan. 19, less than a week after Ben Ali was toppled. Then on Feb. 11, the Swiss froze assets of Mubarak and his associates.

In both cases, the money is locked up for three years while Tunisia and Egypt satisfy Swiss legal requirements by providing information on any financial crimes that could be prosecuted on Swiss soil.
Swiss authorities also froze assets belonging to Ivory Coast's now deposed President Laurent Gbagbo in January.

Switzerland has worked hard in recent years to improve its image as a haven for ill-gotten assets.
Its cabinet has previously taken blocked funds in accounts held by deposed leaders including Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines and Nigeria's Sani Abacha, buying time for foreign prosecutors to build a case for restitution of funds.

Knuchel said that Switzerland had returned $800 million, held by Abacha, to Nigeria, although it took some 4-5 years to complete legal proceedings.

"It was a good example of restitution," he said.

The Swiss Finance Ministry said earlier on Monday it had started proceedings to return assets of former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, frozen since 1986, to the Haitian government.

Tunisia furious as Libya fighting spills over border (VIDEO)

Global Post
Tunisia expresses "extreme indignation" after fighting spills over the border.

A Libyan photographer wounded by shrapnel is wheeled
into a hospital on the western front of Misurata on April 28, 2011.

Fighting between forces loyal to embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and rebels spilled over into Tunisia Thursday, infuriating the Tunisian government.

Gaddafi's forces drove rebels from an outpost near the western Libyan town of Wazen, shut off one of their supply lines and chased them across the border with Tunisia, the Wall Street Journal reports. The two sides exchanged artillery fire Thursday night near Wazen, causing more civilians to flee into Tunisia.

Tunisia authorities said they were furious with Gaddafi for the incursion by his forces as well as for the firing of Grad rockets across the border.

"Given the gravity of what has happened," a Tunisian Foreign Ministry statement said, as reported by Reuters, "the Tunisian authorities have informed the Libyans of their extreme indignation and demand measures to put an immediate stop to these violations."

Gaddafi's troops apologized after briefly crossing the border.

Rebels, who have been fighting Gaddafi's forces for the past two months, captured the strategic border post last week, enabling them to bring supplies into the country. The crossing between Dehiba in Tunisia and Wazen on the Libyan side has been critical because it serves as the only road link for Libya's rebels in the west with the outside world.

The wave of protests that have swept the Arab world began in Tunisia, leading to the overthrow of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January.

Meanwhile, Gaddafi's forces have intensified their assault on Misurata, the city in western Libya that has seen some of the worst fighting.

And a NATO air strike Wednesday reportedly killed at least 11 rebel fighters in Misurata.