Hapless Tunisian businessman woefully victimized under Ben Ali's repressive rule relates his mishaps to Echorouk (Part 1)

Mr Ghazi Melouli, a Tunisian businessman who owned several firms in Tunisia was an associate of part of his business ventures with the brother of ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. But after the unexpected demise of Moncef Ben Ali, his former business partner, Ghazi Melouli was mercilessly stripped of all his belongings and sent to prison by deposed President Ben Ali at the prodding of his insidious wife Leila Trabelsi and her family.

• This hapless Tunisian businessman who now lives in exile in Paris also narrowly escaped an assassination attempt ordered by the Ben Ali regime in Tripoli two years ago. He was met this week in Paris by Echorouk’s correspondent Anouar Malek to whom he related his baffling story in an exclusive interview with Echorouk.

• Echorouk : Can you tell us about the start of your relationship with the family of the deposed Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali?
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• Ghazi Melouli : As a matter of fact, my relationship with Moncef Ben Ali, the late brother of ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, went back to 1985 well before Ben Ali’s coming to power.
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• Moncef Ben Ali was just my business partner as I was in charge of a family company left to me as a legacy by my late father.
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• Echorouk : How did you happen to know late Moncef Ben Ali?
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• Ghazi Melouli : Well, I decided to take him as my business partner as we got on very well together.
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• But our business partnership kicked off after November 1987 in the wake of the consolidation of our partnership.
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• But just after Ben Ali’s coming to power, our relationship began to go downhill owing to unbearable pressure from the repressive Ben Ali regime.
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• Echorouk : Your business partner passed away in murky circumstances in 1996, can you elaborate?
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• Ghazi Melouli : According to official sources from the Ben Ali regime, Moncef Ben Ali died of a heart attack and we were unable at that time to get further details or explanations from the officialdom about his sudden demise.
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• Echorouk : And what happened after Moncef Ben Ali’s death?
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• Ghazi  Melouli : Well, after the abrupt death of my former business partner, I began to be victimized mercilessly by his brother Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his allies.
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• Echorouk : Can you tell us about the nature of your mishaps with the Ben Ali  regime?
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• Ghazi Melouli : The Ben Ali family who had the levers of power wanted at all costs to acquire Moncef’s legacy and they didn’t waver in taking over by the same token all my possessions including my own companies in a heavy-handed way.
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• Echorouk : How could this occur as the official documents testified that you were the main owner of these firms?
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• Ghazi Melouli : Unfortunately, the decision to strip me of all my possessions in blatant violation of the laws and regulations was taken by former President Ben Ali himself in connivance with his wife Leila Trabelsi and her family.
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• In addition to that, I had been barred from traveling abroad up to the year 2000. They stripped me of my passport.
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• Echorouk : What was exactly Leila Ben Ali’s nefarious role in you dire situation?
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• Ghazi Melouli : As a matter of fact, Leila Ben Ali, the wife of the former Tunisian President began to meddle in my business partnership with late Moncef Ben Ali starting from the year 1993.
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• After marrying President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 1992, Leila Trabelsi began to hold sway everywhere by designating her brothers and her close relatives at the helm of numerous strategic enterprises. For instance, her brother Moncef Trabelsi used all leverage to impose himself as a major business partner in my own company against my will.
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• Echorouk : What was Moncef Ben Ali’s stand towards this nefarious interference?
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• Ghazi Melouli : During that turbulent period, Moncef Ben Ali was sought by the French justice for a legal offense and his relationship with his brother Zine El Abidine was not good at all.
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• He felt powerless in the face of the schemings hatched by Leila Trabelsi and her family. But after his death in unclear circumstances, the Trabelsi clan went on the offensive again and finally succeeded in taking over all my possessions coercively in line with their somber machinations with the covert blessing of former President Zine El Abidine himself.
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• Echorouk : What about the circumstances behind your imprisonment in 2001?
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• Ghazi Melouli: The unjust and unfair decision to jail me came after the Ben Alis and Trabelsis and their henchmen used me against my will by wrenching from me of all my possessions including my firms which I had acquired through sweat and blood over numerous years of hard labour.
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• I was callously imprisoned in 2001 for two years only because I was the witness of all their nefarious deeds and schemings against all those like me in Tunisia who did not like and approve of their oppressive and Machiavellian rule.