Tunisian authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Suha Arafat, widow of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, as part of a corruption probe into Tunisia’s former first family.
The justice ministry on Monday said that Suha Arafat used to spend much of her time in Tunisia and was for many years close to the wife of former President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
“Tunisia issued an arrest warrant against Mrs Arafat on suspicion of involvement in cases of financial corruption with the family of Ben Ali’s wife, who was forced to flee by the north African country’s revolution in January,’’ Shokri Nafti, a spokesman for the justice ministry said.
The Arafat family established ties to Tunisia in the period when the Palestinian Liberation Organisation was exiled and set up its headquarters in Tunis in the 1980s and early 1990s.
After the death of the Palestinian leader in 2004, his widow received a Tunisian passport and was frequently seen in Tunisia alongside Ben Ali’s wife, Leila Trabelsi.
The widow was stripped of her Tunisian nationality and deported in 2007 after a dispute with Trabelsi.
She now lives in Malta, according to a Palestinian source who used to be close to the Arafat family.
Since Tunisia’s revolution, which set in motion Arab uprisings across the region, prosecutors have been pursuing dozens of people linked to the former first lady on charges of corruption.
The courts have also convicted Ben Ali and his wife, in absentia, of theft, possession of drugs and weapons, and corruption.
Ben Ali’s lawyer denies the charges.
Courtesy Reuters