Leila Trabelsi Was to Become Tunisia President

Leila Trabelsi, Former Tunisia Lady was about to become the North African new President in 2013, Le Monde reporter Isabelle Mandraud revealed.

Ziad is the name that the French journalist gave to a former advisor of ousted President Zine Abedine Ben Ali, preferred to remain anonymous, and who told her in Tunis the capital, that in 29 December, Ben Ali had held a meeting with his retinue following the suicide attempt of Mohamed Bouazizi.

Ms Mandraud quoted the Ziad as saying that a quarrel had erupted between Ben Ali and his wife Leila Trabelsi in early December, long before the spark of the revolution that saw Ben Ali stepping down. 

Ziad further added that Salim Cheiboub, the husband of one of Ben Ali’s daughters, Belahcen ( brother of Leila), and his son Imad, were all plotting a coup against Ben Ali as by 2013, by forcing him to resign for presumed health troubles, and then calling up for general elections where Leila Trabelsi should become Tunisia new President. 

The source further mentioned that Ben Ali did not care about the incident of Bouazizi who set up himself in Sidi Bouzid locality, the cradle of the Tunisian Revolution, as he reacted by saying: “Let him die!”

From that moment and on, Ben Ali gave up running the country to his advisors, namely Abdelwahab Abdellah and Abdelaziz Bendia, in addition to Ali Seriati, former President Security Chief, Ziad added. 

In 29 December, after Ben Ali’s first speech, advisor Abdellah proposed to Ben Ali to resign and sticking all what happening to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), “to convince the French,” Ziad said, adding “But Ben Ali rejected such a proposal saying “it would kill tourism in Tunisia, which is a sort of suicide.”” 

Ziad concluded that Seriati was upset by the reaction of army forces which biased to the people, and said: “Yes we’ll leave, but we’ll burn it!””