The Tunisian state defended Wednesday before the Aix-en-Provence court of appeal its request for extradition of Belhassen Trabelsi, brother-in-law of the former dictator Ben Ali, assuring that he would have " fundamental guarantees of defense and the right to a fair trial ”in his country.
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On June 24, the Advocate General requested a favorable opinion for this extradition request before the investigative chamber of the Court of Appeal, but a new hearing had to be scheduled, because the Tunisian state did not then had not been summoned. The Tunisian state " deeply wishes that its request for extradition be accepted ", declared in its name the lawyer general of the penal affairs of the Tunisian ministry of Justice, Jamel Sahaba.
Faced with Belhassen Trabelsi, who reiterated on Wednesday his fears of being ill-treated in Tunisia, recalling again the example of three of his brothers who died in prison between 2011 and 2020, Jamel Sahaba assured that he would not be " subjected to any degrading treatment ", and that he would have" all the fundamental guarantees of defense and the right to a fair trial ". Mentioning the three brothers of Belhassen Trabelsi, the representative of the Tunisian state also assured that they had " benefited from all the necessary care ".
Sentenced to 33 years in prison
Belhassen Trabelsi, 57, a businessman, was arrested in March 2019 in France and indicted in this country in a case of " organized gang laundering, concealment, use and complicity in false administrative documents ". The case is still ongoing. Having fled Tunisia during the 2011 revolution which caused the fall of President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, Belhassen Trabelsi had settled in Canada which he had left in 2016 after Ottawa's refusal to grant him asylum Politics.
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After his arrest in France, Tunisia had requested his extradition with a view to carrying out three prison sentences pronounced by default for a total of 33 years in prison. These sentences relate to financial crimes from which Belhassen Trabelsi would have benefited close to twenty million euros, according to Tunisian judicial authorities. The procedures relate in particular to the sale of shares in the airline company Tunis Air and an over-billing mechanism within the company Tunisie Sucre. The Advocate General deferred to his conclusions on June 24 on Wednesday.
The defender of Belhassen Trabelsi said that their client was again sentenced on June 29 in Tunisia to 10 years' imprisonment, in a case on which the extradition request is not based. The decision of the investigating chamber of the court of appeal was put under advisement on September 16 at 2 p.m.
