TUNIS — Three human rights groups Wednesday welcomed the
corruption conviction of Tunisia’s ousted president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali and
his wife, but said conditions for a fair trial were not met.

In a joint statement, the International Federation of Human
Rights, the Tunisian League of Human Rights and the National Council for
Freedoms in Tunisia “hailed” the 35-year jail sentence slapped on the
couple, living in exile in Saudi Arabia, for embezzling public funds.

But they deplored that “the trial did not take place in
serene and irreproachable conditions” and that “all efforts were not
made to secure Ben Ali’s extradition before the opening of the trial.”

“The opening of the trial of the former dictator
conforms with the aspirations of the Tunisian people to justice, but the
importance of this trial demanded that all conditions for a right to a fair
trial should have been met first,” the groups said.

They added that future trials must be held with victims
present, “focusing on the most serious crimes, tortures, arbitrary
detentions, harassment of human rights advocates, extra-judicial killings and
others, perpetrated before the dictator’s downfall, particularly serious human
rights violations carried out during the Tunisian Revolution.”

Deliberations ahead of Monday’s verdict were unusually brief
under the rules of the Tunisian penal code said the statement calling for
reforms to ensure “greater respect of the rights of the defense.”

Monday, Judge Touhami Hafi said the sentences, which
exceeded the 20 years that had been widely predicted, would take immediate
effect despite the couple living in Saudi Arabia, which has so far ignored
Tunisia’s demands to extradite Ben Ali.

Ben Ali and his wife Leila Trabelsi, charged with plundering
state coffers after the discovery of money and jewelery at their palace outside
Tunis, were also fined a total of 91 million dinars (45.5 million euros/$66
million dollars).