As of May 5, 2011, ex-president of Tunisia Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his wife are to face charges in regards to the deaths and killings of some protestors in January’s revolution. Ben Ali already faces 18 charges including involuntary manslaughter and drug-trafficking to name a few. The new charges include “instigating disorder, murder and looting” and “plotting against the internal security,” says the Tunisian justice ministry. A court in Sousse, Tunisia is investigating the new charges before Ben Ali is officially brought up with charges. The new charges have to do with occurrences on January 15, 2011 in the town of Ouardanin that continued into the morning of January 16th. Security forces, employed by Ben Ali, killed four people after opening fire on protestors. The protestors in this situation were trying to stop Ben Ali’s nephew, Kais Ben Ali, from fleeing the town. As well, 14 security officers involved in the Ouardanin shootings have been charged for their role in the deaths while the ex-president is charged with ordering them to open fire on the nonviolent protestors. As of now, the UN has calculated that 219 people have died in Tunisian since the uprising began in December.
The judicial process regarding human rights violations is complicated. Because this is a domestic issue, the UN has no official jurisdiction over the crimes committed by Ben Ali and his security forces. In this case, the UN and ICC cannot become involved because the country of Tunisia is both willing and able to carry out criminal proceedings. If Ben Ali did in fact order the killing of innocent protestors, he is violating their freedom of speech and expression. The Ben Ali government has been known for its oppression of such rights to the resulting reaction from Ben Ali is to be expected.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13294799
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