Corruption Crackdown: Tunisia Sentences Top Tycoon and Ex-Premier

A Tunisian court on Tuesday sentenced the country’s wealthiest businessman, Marouan Mabrouk, to prison on corruption charges, while also handing down prison terms to a former prime minister and several former cabinet ministers over their involvement in a separate case tied to Mabrouk’s frozen assets in Europe.

Mabrouk, the son-in-law of Tunisia’s former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was overthrown during the 2011 uprising, has been in detention since late 2023.

A prominent figure in Tunisia’s business landscape, Mabrouk belongs to an influential family with extensive interests spanning trade, banking, telecommunications, and automobile dealerships. His holdings also include control of a major supermarket chain and stakes in BIAT Bank, French telecom giant Orange, and a biscuit manufacturing company.

Unlike many relatives of Ben Ali who fled the country after the 2011 revolution, Mabrouk remained in Tunisia. Nevertheless, critics have long argued that successive governments after the revolution offered him protection and political support.

Authorities charged Mabrouk with money laundering and misappropriating funds from state-owned enterprises.

In a separate ruling, former Prime Minister Youssef Chahed was convicted for his government’s decision to lift an asset freeze previously imposed on Mabrouk. Chahed, along with former ministers of foreign affairs, finance, human rights, and information and communication technologies, each received six-year prison sentences and were fined $800 million.

Chahed, who served as Tunisia’s prime minister from 2016 to 2020, is currently in the United States. The verdict against him was issued in absentia. He has denied any wrongdoing, describing the charges as politically motivated.

The case unfolds against the backdrop of sweeping political changes in Tunisia. President Kais Saied assumed extraordinary powers in 2021, dissolving parliament and taking control of the government, a move critics in the opposition labeled a coup.

In 2022, Saied established a committee tasked with recovering funds from business figures allegedly involved in financial corruption, aiming to help reduce Tunisia’s mounting budget deficit.

Saied has repeatedly stated that those implicated must repay the state, declaring that Tunisia would not relinquish money owed to it. He estimated the government could recover at least $5 billion through the effort.

However, several years after the initiative began, the reconciliation committee has yet to announce that it has recovered any funds.

(With inputs from agencies.)