The controversy that preceded the broadcast of this interview on Attounissia TV last night, the referral by the litigation of the State of Justice to prohibit its dissemination and the insistence of Mez Ben Gharbia who obtained the case, aroused the crowds of viewers and probably, an explosion of the audience.
But these thousands of viewers who watched until a late hour remained hungry.
Indeed, the man condemned in absentia by the justice of his country, on the run abroad since the overthrow of Ben Ali, of which he is the son -in -law, has made no confidence, has given no secrets and has not revealed anything about his affairs, his relations, his past and his current situation.
The interview took place in two stages: an interview led by MoEz Ben Ghabia and a live connection with the person concerned, to answer questions from viewers.
Slim Chiboub defended himself from being on the run and claimed that it was fortuitously that he was at the Emirates during the events of January 14. He clarified that a few days before, he had gone to Libya to request the help of Muammar Gaddafi with whom he admitted to having had privileged relationships. But it was, according to him, his own chief that he went there and not at the request of Ben Ali, as Leila Trabelsi indicated in her book “My Truth”.
He added that he preferred not to return to Tunisia for security reasons and wait for the installation of the new diet. He declared himself ready to return to the country, to appear before the courts and to assume his responsibilities. Only, he said that he does not have a passport and allegedly alleged that he is not sure to be able to obtain it from the Tunisian Embassy on the grounds that the latter has already refused him a request for certification of conformity to the original of official and legal documents. He said he contacted Samir Dilou on this subject and has not yet had an answer.
Slim Chiboub rejects any involvement in the cases of corruption and embezzlement which are attributed to it. He claims that all the fortune he raised comes from lawful and regular activities from which he cited participations with Tunisian businessmen and legal brokerage operations.
He accused those who pursued him in justice of wanting to acquire a celebrity by attacking the symbols of the Old Regime and that their accusations are false and tendentious.
He did not deny having drawn the advantages of his kinship ties with the fallen president, but he assured that he has never appropriated the thing of others, nor use his influence to defraud to the law.
Playing the game of the victim, Slim Chiboub went, in this interview, to pay tribute to the political class and to the current rulers. In this context, he appointed Islamists, Hamma Hammami, Radhia Nasraoui and Maya Jeribi to evoke their misadventures under the dictatorship regime. He admits that Tunisia must be governed by activists who dared to challenge tyranny and have had the courage to resist torture and repression and warns against the false revolutionaries who took advantage of Ben Ali’s time for 23 years and seek to rebuild themselves.
Even better, he considers that Ben Ali’s flight was the best scenario to avoid a bloodbath in the country.
He was only missing that Tunisians were to congratulate the success of the revolution of which he has erected as theorist by calling for the preservation of state authority and consensus, taking done and causes with the martyrs and the wounded of the Revolution, insisting on transitional justice and focusing on the development of the poor regions. He even proposed to revisit contemporary history, from the anti -colonial struggle.
But it is really necessary to be naive to believe that the son-in-president of the ex-president is also tender with the Revolution and subscribed to the transitional process which was to lead to the total rupture with the mediocracy. His flattering remarks did not prevent him from referring to the declaration of November 7, to recall the economic performance of past years and implicitly endorse the version of the coup to which some continue to believe.
Slim Chiboub said, at the end of the interview, that he was contacted by several journalists and that he preferred to decline their proposals. He did not decided to speak (without saying anything) that following the multiplication of accusations and bobards concerning him. In other words, MoEz Ben Gharbia is not the only one to have approached him.
