Tunisia’s ex-leader on trial for murder

The first court case brought by a commission investigating human rights abuses in Tunisia has opened in the city of Gabes.

Fourteen former officials, including ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, are on trial in connection with the murder, in the early 1990s, of a member of the Islamist Ennahda movement.

The former president, who is exiled in Saudi Arabia, is being tried in absentia.

The Truth and Dignity Commission, set up after the Arab Spring uprisings, has received more than 60,000 allegations of human rights violations dating back to the late 1950s.

It has referred more than 30 cases of serious violations to Tunisian courts. BBC News