Hated first lady: Rags to riches to running away
Tunisian protesters hated their autocratic president -- but it was loathing for his former-hairdresser wife and her greedy family that helped trigger the riots that toppled the government yesterday.
Leila Ben Ali, 63 -- mocked as "the Queen of Carthage" -- enjoyed a rags-to-riches story that made her one of the world's most powerful Arab women.
She was one of 11 children of a Tunis father who sold nuts for a living. After attending schools in the Tunisian capital, marrying and divorcing her first husband and holding jobs in a hair salon and a travel agency, she met Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, a rising politician and interior minister.
Ben Ali seized power in 1987. Five years later they were married, and soon members of her clan, the Trabelsi family, began exploiting the Tunisian economy. They were suspected of shady doings as they acquired a hotel chain, airline, radio stations and other businesses.
Leila had her own deals going -- like in 2007 when the government gave her a free tract of land in Carthage and $1.5 million to open a school, which she later sold to Belgian investors.
Anger over Leila and her relatives broke out last fall when WikiLeaks disclosed a 2008 cable from US Ambassador Robert Godec that said they operated as a "quasi-mafia" and are referred to simply as "The Family."
The cable, which was marked secret and not to be declassified until 2018, said Leila's mother acted as a broker who took payments to arrange school admissions and government jobs.
Her brother Belhassen Trebalsi is suspected of extortion and bribe-taking, it said. Two other Trabelsis were wanted by Interpol for stealing a Frenchman's yacht.
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