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Monday, May 17, 2010, at 16:31 "On whole sectors of the Tunisian economy.
Leila Trabelsi had requested the ban this book in the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris. The book includes, she said, "defamatory passages and other offensive" against her. She was eventually dismissed on September 30 and ordered to pay € 1,500 to the publisher of the book. The court was particularly concerned that it "has not respected in his assignment the obligation incumbent on it to indicate the legislation applicable to the prosecution." Strange for a "law degree" ...
The book is available in bookstores, in 18,000 copies since October 1 and will no doubt be a commercial success. Remember that the book "Our Friend Ben Ali" the same beautiful Nicols, co-written with Jean-Pierre Turquoi, had sold like hotcakes, and even reprinted. Tunisian consular services of countries where the book was on sale, were ordered to buy more copies as possible.
Considering the fact that the book is already prohibited in Tunisia and the difficulties that most Tunisians living in Tunisia will experience to get it, we decided to publish extensive excerpts. We start with the second chapter discusses the irresistible rise of Leila Ben Ali Trabelsi wife ...
Nawaat.org
A meteoric rise
Who is Leila Trabelsi? She gets even the old prostitute, described by Tunisian citizens willingly? Issue the courtesan from a modest background and ready to succeed to some arrangements with morality? Or the ambitious and independent young woman whose romance favored a rapid upward mobility? It is very difficult, as we have seen, to trace his biography as the rumor the dispute to the facts. And to make matters worse, there is in Tunisia, as incredible as it may seem - and what many do not know - two Leila Trabelsi.
The secret of the two
Leila Trabelsi's name is very common in countries of jasmine, surprising that Leila Trabelsi has a namesake. But the real surprise is this: both revolve Leila, in the 1980s, in environments comparable to hair salons lobbies the Ministry of Interior. Their paths are parallel, their destinies. Including amalgam and confusion that will pollute a little more secret biography of the wife General Ben Ali. The second
Leila Trabelsi began his career with more brightly than the current first lady. In the early 1980s, this attractive woman standing on Donna Barber, on the road to Soukra. All the ladies of high society attended the place. Is this where Leila became aa few relationships within the power? And she began working for the Ministry of Interior? In any case, it will play then, for the secret services, the role of Mata Hari. Thanks to its charms, living a good source, she was introduced to the media Libyan.
At the time, Colonel Qaddafi had a very bad reputation in Tunisia. With its petrodollars and ardor of his warriors 'guide', Libya frightened the Tunisian leaders. Especially after the events of January 27, 1980, when forty Tunisians trained in Libya tried to seize Gafsa in the south. The attack failed, but many death sentences were pronounced. Hence the constant monitoring that the Bourguiba regime, including aid for the French secret service, then practiced on neighbor threatening.
The Libyans had - and have always - the tendency to see women liberated by Bourguiba as easy women. Tunisia, in the imagination of some of them would be a place of perdition, the way the people of Lebanon for the Gulf. The attractiveness of the country has not escaped the temptations of Tunis cops, who often pushed into the arms of some beautiful friends of Gadhafi spies. Some bad language will argue that until Leila Trabelsi aa had initially worked for the Libyan regime, before being returned by the Tunisian services. Plausible assumption: it was born in Libya and has the dual passport. His name, Trabelsi, means "from Tripoli."
Anyway, she had access to the Ministry of Interior and became acquainted in those years, all major Tunisian cops, including Gen. Ben Ali. These acquaintances explain that it has become, in the late 1980s, the mistress of Mohamed Ali Mahjoubi, nicknamed Chedly Hammi the first circle of friends. This official was to become the first director of the security of President Ben Ali and his Secretary of State for Security. But Chedly and Leila bis bothered. The future president, she, was not officially married as she was the mistress of Ben Ali. How to support this dual referred to him her sex illegitimate? And how to accept this distorted mirror of his own past? President Ben Ali to then insisted that he Chedly Hammi cease any relationship with his mistress. After the refusal of the latter, the story turned sour.
In 1990, the Secretary of State and sweet are arrested, jailed and convicted for "intelligence with Israel." Chedly Hammi's successor at the State Secretariat for Security, Ali Ganzaoui, a protégé the President, is the seat of French services. He must at all costs which the latter produce evidence of such cooperation with the Israelis. In the famous books of General Philippe Rondot, special adviser to France successive ministers of defense, are actually at the time of appointment with Ganzaoui. "I can not do anything for him, General Rondot confided to one of his contacts in Tunisia, this story of espionage for Israel is completely invented. "
Two years later, Chedly Hammi out of prison. Ben Ali was summoned to the palace of Carthage. "I'm sorry," he said, I was misled. " Nevertheless, the second Leila, she disappeared into the desert sands. Person, in Tunis, has not heard from her. The sad life of Leila's namesake is now a taboo subject. From
travel agency executive secretary
Born in 1957 in a modest family in numbers, the future wife of General Ben Ali was raised in Khaz ¬ nadar near Bardo in Tunis. Others remember that the family lived in El Trabelsi Hafsia, one of the most dilapidated districts of Medina. His father sold nuts and her mother raised eleven children. With patent in hand, the young Leila enters school styling of the Rue de Madrid. She made her debut "At Wafa 'dressing room Barcelona. In 1975, eighteen years, she met some Maaouia Khelil, then head of the agency notice on the airport road. Crazy in love, she married, before divorcing three years later - My husband spends his time hunting, she complained, he does not care about me. "It
when Leila was hired to travel agency 2000. Its owner, Lamouri Omran, also owned, near Tunis Hotel Doves. The agency was at the heart of the capital to the central building, a shopping mall close to the embassy of France. Leila discovered the medium businessmen, traveled a bit, opened the vast world. Independent woman, she was already rolling in a small Renault 5. She and her friends went out a lot of time talking about it with sympathy, telling her she was always ready to party or to alter the beach. This earned him, in Tunis popular nickname of "Leila Gin" because of his alleged taste for this drink. In general, Leila has always been discreet about his relationships.
In his spare time, she indulges so sometimes small customs traffic between Paris and Rome. An initiative that allows him to supplement his income and shine in front of her friends of more modest. Alas, she gets one day reach into the bag and was stripped of his passport. It calls for a strong relationship, Tahar Mokrani, one of the pillars of creation, at independence, the Ministry of Interior. The latter occurs. Could it be that this opportunity would have been reviewed by Leila Ben Ali, director of Security from December 1977 to April 1980? According to several testimonies we have collected, would be the case. Anyway, this first meeting will have little result. In January 1980, events will be lethal for Gafsa director of the Police, accused of negligence. General Ben Ali was banished as ambassador to Poland.
The meeting that will truly revolutionize the life of Leila Trabelsi is Farid Mokhtar. Cultivated, fond of art, leading the African Football Club of Tunis, a competitor of Esperance Sportive de Tunis, the Tunisian headed the industrial dairy industries (STIL), a large state enterprise. Finally, it was brother Mohamed Mzali, then Prime Minister. Thanks to Farid, Leila was hired as an executive secretary at Batimat. This company was one of countless subsidiaries of your Company Tunisian bank, then presided over by Uncle Farid Hassan Belkhodja, who was a relative of Bourguiba's first ambassador in Paris of the young Republic of Tunisia, before becoming minister and banker . We found very far from the world of hairdressing school and travel agency. Accompanied by Farid Mokhtar, the young Leila will find good company in Tunis.
Climate of terror in Tunis
Their association last three or four years, until Farid there an end. In 1984, General Ben Ali returned from his exile in Poland. Very loving Leila, it reviews quickly, it installs in a comfortable villa on the road to Soukra. It ceases all activities and lives in the shadow of Ben Ali, appointed interior minister by Prime Minister Mohamed Mzali. Both are now feeding the same ambitions. "Be patient, we'll soon be at the palace of Carthage," he said one day when he must leave for an urgent appointment.
is the time when relations become tense in the entourage of Mohamed Mzali between rival clans. The first includes Mzali's wife, his brother Farid Mokhtar and some ministers. The second clan is led by Mzali close adviser and Minister of Public Service, Mezri Chekir, from Monastir Bourguiba as, at his side, the interior minister, and brothers Kamel Raouf and Slaheddine Eltaief, faithful between all Ben Ali. These distant cousins of the Tunisian president has never spared him their support. The more political, Kamel has been the top five feet of his principal architect of the career of Ben Ali. It was he who, in 1984, managed to get him back from exile Poland, thanks to its links with Mezri Chekir.
Soon Farid Mokhtar feels threatened by Ben Ali. And he's right! Is it because of his membership in a clan opposition? Of his past affair with Leila? Or both? In any case, Ben Ali prepares a corruption case against him. The weather is spoiled. In May 1986 a meeting of the Socialist Party Destourien held in Ras Jebel, near Bizerte. Farid decided to go there. At 3 o'clock in the morning, Mohamed Mzali receives a phone call at his home. At the other end of the phone, Ben Ali himself: "Mr. Prime Minister, your brother had a serious accident car, was hospitalized on the road to Bizerte. "Two hours later, a new appeal by the Minister of the Interior to the Prime Minister:" Farid Mokhtar died. "The next
Mohamed Mzali goes, and every day, with Bourguiba. "At some silver lining, it was about to stop your brother to ask him accountable for his management of the STIL," says the head of state to his prime minister. In the entourage of the former lover of Leila, nobody today believes in an accident. That day, it was not her regular driver who drove Farid Bizerte. After the accident, it was taken to a specialized hospital for lung diseases, totally unsuited to his state. Finally, at the funeral, General Ben Ali will not bother to offer his condolences to the wife of Mohamed Mzali, sister of Farid Mokhtar.
The seven families who plunder Tunisia
In the years following the accession to power of Ben Ali's relatives to do business juicy. But nobody claims the monopoly on all transactions and commissions family clans have captured beautiful parts of a pie that divide them.
For Eltaief three brothers, Ben Ali as from a family originally from Hammam Sousse, November 7, 1987 is a blessed day. Kamel Eltaief therefore plays the role of "President bis receiving each morning in the offices of the street in the heart of Beirut, Tunis, key government ministers. In its wake, two brothers in business. Ben Ali's family also benefits from a few bribes. A brother, not a sister of the new president who does receive a small treat. Moncef, the favorite brother, went into drug trafficking and leave, say, 4 million dinars in debt from banks. Kais Ben Ali, the son of the elder brother, giving itself a monopoly on alcohol and handmade in Sousse based on free-shop Monastiri.
The three girls from the first marriage of Ben Ali with Naima Kefi are not forgotten. The eldest, Dorsaf, wife Slim Chiboub. The advent of his stepfather in the palace of Carthage was a godsend for him: son of a clerk, "Mr. son" enjoys preferential treatment in the allocation of land and markets. And he enjoys large pharmaceutical markets and beautiful land - which will be resumed later. Slim Chiboub is known for excessive appetites. The owners of the chain of supermarkets Auchan will move back to its demands and renounce to settle in Tunisia. However, Slim Chiboub succeed in 2001 to install a Carrefour hypermarket on land, located in Soukra than areas of the State itself have surrendered at a nominal price. From 1989 to 2004, the son of the President will also preside over the destiny of Esperance Sportive de Tunis (EST).
The youngest daughter, Cyrine, Marwan Mabrouk wife in 1996. He inherited the Mercedes dealership Tunis and takes control over the Internet in Tunisia. And God knows the area, totally fliquer is sensitive! Center of the Ministry of Interior Salambo, a suburb of Tunis, stalking any unauthorized message. The Mabrouk are also assigned housing function traditionally assigned to the Director of National Security, a splendid villa in the upscale neighborhood of Belvedere. The third daughter, Ghazoua married to Slim Zarrouk, will also benefit from some favors, particularly during the privatization of some public enterprises (such as the National Society of raising chickens, acquired on the cheap in the late 1990's by Slim Zarruk, puffs sold at high prices) ... In a libel
circulating in 1997-1998 under the mantle in Tunis, he discusses the seven families who plunder Tunisia. This document describes very well informed of the functioning family clans around Ben Ali, who shared with friends land, contracts and factories. The opposition in the early 1990s, the bodyguards of the president to the arrival of any new intruder. Kamel Eltaief and Slim Chiboub and resolutely opposed to union projects with Leila Ben Ali.
Unfortunately for them, the wedding take place in 1992. Soon after, Kamel Eltaief wanted to brave the new president and make the circumcision his son a social event - as Ben Ali and Leila did not yet have male offspring. Result, many public men who had committed the mistake of accepting this invitation was immediately dismissed: the Minister of Health, the Director of Tourism, the president of Tunis Air found themselves unemployed. Leila's reign at the Palace of Carthage began. In 1996, Kamel Eltaief premises in the industrial zone Soukra, were burned by a score of masked individuals. The power was suspected of compromising files are stored on the turpitude of Leila. Officially, the police investigation did not know the origin of the fire. Since then, Kamel Eltaief was never received at the palace of Carthage. Only his old ties with the Americans to protect a bad shot.
A boulevard for Trabelsi
During the four years following the marriage in 1992 by Leila Ben Ali, the Trabelsi clan has been relatively quiet. Since 1996, their appetites appear more conspicuous and will gradually spell the end of the ambitions of Eltaief, Mabrouk or Chiboub. That year, the elder brother and beloved Leila, Belhassen, puts his hand on the airline that Karthago Airlines will become. He becomes the linchpin of the financial affairs of the family, as discussed in Chapter 4.
lock starts, because Trabelsi are not sharers ... Not an area that escapes them, not a transaction with a foreign group of which they are stakeholders, not a nice ground, or almost over which they have views. And nobody in the clan, is forgotten! After Belhassen, Moncef! This former street photographer had a great career. In the past, the Tunisian bank has extended credit to become a farmer. His first son, Houssam, created an association, Musical youth of Carthage, who has a reputation for not honoring its contracts. The second, Moez, and the third, Imed - the favorite nephew of Leila - were from 2008 to serious trouble with the French court in the famous case of stolen yachts (see below, chapter 5). In Tunis, Imed makes the law. On one call, it can be imprisoning an opponent or otherwise release a trafficker. Nobody would dare to oppose frontally to protect the palace.
One of the sisters, Djalili, became the queen of buffets, whether that of the HEC School in Carthage or that of the School national architecture. Her husband, El Hadj, who owned a petrol kiosk, became an entrepreneur in real estate. One of his buildings is leased to the Ministry of Transport, who was forced to sign a favorable lease.
Many of these dirty tricks are done without the approval of the president. Also in 2002, Ben Ali was trying to maintain a semblance of order. So this year, he met key members of the family Trabelsi: "If you want money, at least be discreet. Find straw men and shell companies. In other words, professionalize you!
A board hardly seems to have been followed, as discussed in subsequent chapters. Referee powerless, the president sometimes try to pound his fist on the table. Thus, in 2006, industrialists complain of infringing products imported from China with the blessing of Trabelsi. At a cabinet meeting, the President calls on Minister of Trade and Handicrafts, Mondher Znaidi: "So, Mr. Minister, I hear that contraband containers arriving from China? - That is to say, "replied the other, I am not aware, the Customs under the Ministry of Finance. "No question of taking the slightest risk Madam Presidents of upsetting ...
The course Cheman Fouad, the son of a large textile manufacturer and multimillionaire, is exemplary of this mess. Here is one of the great figures of the business world compelled in 2004 to take the path of exile to the United States, with his wife and two children.
Upon arrival of Ben Ali, Slim Chiboub, one of the sons-covets the thrift industry that prevailed Cheman far. Everything will be done to discourage the heir of the old family: corruption one of his associates, repeated summonses, arrests, show trials. Fouad Cheman retired to the sumptuous villa he had built on the ledge of Sidi Bou Said. After the onslaught of Chiboub attacks Trabelsi. Soon, Leila views on the beautiful home of Cheman where it would install his daughter willingly Nesrine. Envoys of the palace came to ask him to sell his property to a "friend of the president." No way, replies the industry. Ill take him. The tax authorities sentenced him to pay a record fine of 2 million. Fouad Cheman decided to go into exile in the United States, not without having rented his house in the Iraqi ambassador, with the blessing of the U.S. embassy.
His capacity for harm is real and is the son of Mustapha Zaanouni, former ambassador and former minister, an advisor to the UN. From Washington, he threatened to launch campaigns against the regime, if his troubles do not stop. Result: the prosecution against him will cease and amend tax lost in the sands. Some notable
Tunisian, who are shrinking day by day their margins of maneuver, in any case are now moving to the exasperation of resistance. What is telling a French diplomat, who has long lived in Tunisia and very familiar with the local seraglio: "In succession Ben Ali announced, the bourgeoisie of Tunis is not a family solution. And not a regent named Leila ...
* The Regent of Carthage. Raid on Tunisia. Ed La Découverte, 177 p., 13 €, p36-p46
Excerpts posted by www.nawaat.org with kind permission of the publisher
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