The Tunis Court of Appeal confirmed the sentence of 16 years in prison pronounced against the businessman Belhassen Trabelsi as part of the Carthage Cement case. The criminal chamber specializing in financial corruption affairs has retained against it from the facts of financial and administrative corruption linked to the privatization and management of the company.
According to elements of the investigation, Trabelsi would have abused his influence, as a member of the family of former president Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, to intervene in the process of allocating the company’s shares under favorable conditions and in defiance of the rules of transparency.
In the same case, another businessman saw his sentence reduced to five years in prison. A lawyer also prosecuted has been struck off from the procedure due to his death.
Belhassen Trabelsi did not appear before the Tunisian justice, his conviction having been pronounced in absentia. Since the 2011 revolution, he has fled Tunisia. Arrested in France in 2019, he was the subject of an extradition request issued by the Tunisian authorities.
However, in January 2021, French justice refused this extradition, notably invoking the risks of inhuman and degrading treatment in the event of awarding to the Tunisian authorities. He has resided since in France, without having served any of the sentences pronounced against him.
The conviction in the Carthage Cement case is added to a series of judgments rendered against Belhassen Trabelsi in various corruption affairs:
Spoliation of state land in Hammamet: 10 years in prison
Cactus prod affair: 10 years in prison
Evision of funds at the Bank of Tunisia: 8 years in prison
Ennakl Automobiles affair: 6 years for illicit enrichment
Carthage Cement case: 16 years old confirmed on appeal
Other files in progress: money laundering, abuse of power, embezzlement
In the absence of extradition, the convictions against Belhassen Trabelsi remain theoretical for the moment.
