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| Africa North |
| Tunisia Recovers Millions Of Ben Ali's 'Looted Assets' |
| 2013-04-13 |
| [France24] Tunisia received a fiscal boost on Thursday after the government was handed a cheque amounting to $28.8 million in recovered assets that had been held abroad by ousted president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his wife, Laila Trabelsi. Tunisia received $28.8 million on Thursday in the first such retrieval of what it calls looted assets held abroad by ousted President-for-Life Zine El Abidine Ben Ali ...who departed by popular demand in January, 2011, precipitating the Arab Spring... and his family. The state news agency TAP said a cheque in that amount had been handed to President Moncef Marzouki by Ali bin Fetais al-Marri, appointed by the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... to head efforts to recover money from leaders tossed in Arab uprisings. Marri, Qatar's attorney-general, was named U.N. Special Advocate for Stolen Asset Recovery in September. TAP said the money returned to Tunisia had been in a Lebanese bank account belonging to Laila Trabelsi, the wife of Ben Ali, who fled to Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... with his family on Jan. 14, 2011 after popular protests ended his 23-year rule. Local media say billions of dollars acquired corruptly by Ben Ali and his entourage remain unaccounted for, but the exact amount is not known. Tunisia's Islamist-led government, grappling with economic woes that include high unemployment, is under popular pressure to recover the money, but faces legal and political difficulties in gaining access to the accounts where it is believed held. An International Monetary Fund team arrived in Tunis this week to discuss a $1.78 billon loan requested by the government. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #1 That ought to take care of the deficit for a week or two... |
| Posted by: Raj 2013-04-13 01:39 |