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Tunisian president's wife fails to have book stopped

Article published on the 2009-10-02 Latest update 2009-10-02 17:09 TU

Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali meets with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Tunis last year(Photo: Reuters)

Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali meets with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Tunis last year
(Photo: Reuters)

A Paris court rejected a request from the wife of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the president of Tunisia, to place an injunction on a new book which she claimed included defamatory passages about her.

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In the book The Regent of Carthage, which went on sale on Thursday, journalists Nicolas Beau and Catherine Graciet describe the “key role” of Leile Trabelsi in shaping Tunisian policy. They also fire a broadside at what they call “France’s complicity of silence”.

Trabelsi had called for the injunction of the book as well as a withdrawal of any copies that had already been issued as they contained “some passages that are defamatory and others that are injurious.”

The court rejected the request on Wednesday, saying that she had failed to identify the sections in law that backed up her claim. This meant the defendants were unable to organise their defence.

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