Former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali dies in exile at 83

Former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has died in exile in Saudi Arabia at the age of 83. The ousted president who fled to Saudi Arabia after a 2011 revolution has reportedly died after suffering a health crisis. He was reportedly transferred to a hospital in Jeddah around a month ago and has died of lung cancer which was diagnosed in 2004.

He was appointed Prime Minister in October 1987 and assumed the Presidency on 7 November 1987 in a bloodless coup d'état that ousted President Habib Bourguiba, who was declared incompetent.

Ben Ali was subsequently reelected with enormous majorities, the final re-election was on 25 October 2009.

Following a month of protests against his rule that inspired other Arab Spring uprisings abroad and led to a democratic transition at home, he was forced to flee to Saudi Arabia along with his wife Leïla Ben Ali and their three children in January 2011.

A Tunisian court sentenced Ben Ali and his wife in absentia to 35 years in prison on 20 June 2011 on charges of theft and unlawful possession of cash and jewelry.

In June 2012, a Tunisian court sentenced him in absentia to life imprisonment for inciting violence and murder and another life sentence by a military court on April 2013 for the violent repression of protests in Sfax.