Tunisia’s ex-President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali reportedly died in exile in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, his family lawyer confirmed.
“Ben Ali just died in Saudi Arabia,” the lawyer, Mounir Ben Salha, told Reuters.
Ben Ali came to power in 1987, ousting Habib Bourguiba to become Tunisia’s second-ever president. He served as the president for more than two decades. He was credited with delivering stability and some economic prosperity. But he was faced with widespread criticism for suppressing political freedoms and widespread corruption in the country.
In 2011, mass street protests forced him out of office. He fled to Saudi Arabia as his compatriots rose up against his oppressive rule in a revolution. The protests triggered a wave of similar uprisings across the Arab world. Around half a dozen countries in the region saw their president overthrow or conflicts break out following the former Tunisian leader’s downfall, in what became known as the Arab Spring.
The lawyer told Reuters that the funeral will take place on Friday in Saudi Arabia.
Ben Ali’s death comes just days after Tunisia held the second free presidential election since he was ousted. The voting was brought forward after the death of the country’s first democratically elected president, Beji Caid Essebsi, who took office in 2014.
In the Sunday elections, Tunisians chose between 26 candidates. Tunisia’s electoral commission on Tuesday announced Kais Saied, an independent candidate and law professor, got the majority percentage of votes at 18.4%, while imprisoned media mogul Nabil Karoui followed in second place with 15.6% of the vote. The moderate Islamist Ennahda candidate Abdelfattah Mourou came in third with 12.9% of the vote.
As no candidate got more than 50% of the votes in the first round, the top two vote-getters Saied, and Karoui will now compete in a decisive run-off.
The second round of voting will take place on October 6, the same day as legislative elections, or on October 13.
