In the past few weeks he has imprisoned political heavyweights including Noureddine Bhiri a senior official in Islamist Ennahda party influential activist Khayam Turki and the former kingmaker for former President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali Kamel Eltaïef...

Mass demonstrations took place on 14 January the twelfth anniversary of the revolution that unseated President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali and sparked the Arab Spring...

Many regions outside Tunis and richer 'Sahel' cities remain as marginalised as they were under Zine el Abidine Ben Ali who was removed in the 2011 revolution and indeed under founding president Habib Bourguiba...

Analysts contend that this parliament will be even less influential than the toothless chamber under President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali...

Saïed restructured the Instance supérieure indépendante pour les élections in May and opposition parties from the left and the hard right Parti destourien libre (PDL) led by former Zine el Abidine Ben Ali loyalist Abir Moussi have accused it of corruption...

That last provision is important because it was the neutrality of the army when protestors went on the streets across Tunisia that allowed the non-violent toppling of President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali's regime in 2011 and his subsequent flight to Saudi Arabia...

In Tunisia President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali and his kleptocratic family fled to be replaced by an uneasy secular/Islamist coalition in which MB affiliate Ennahda (Renaissance) had a leading role...