Halima Ben Ali arrested at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris

Paris: A daughter of Tunisia’s former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, ousted in 2011 during the Arab Spring, has been arrested in France at the request of Tunisian authorities, prosecutors told AFP on Tuesday.

Halima Ben Ali was arrested at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris as she was about to board a flight to Dubai.

She is to appear on Wednesday at the Paris prosecutor’s office “for notification of the request for provisional arrest” issued by Tunisian authorities, it said.

She will then be placed under either extradition detention or judicial supervision, the prosecutor’s office added.

The reason for Tunisia’s request was not immediately given.

Her lawyer, Samia Maktouf, told AFP Halima Ben Ali was subject to an Interpol red notice requested by Tunisia on charges of embezzlement.

She said that Ben Ali had already been arrested at Tunisia’s request in Italy in 2018, but then released.

“My client is the victim of a witch hunt launched by Tunisia,” said Maktouf.

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was the first leader to be toppled by the Arab Spring revolts.

He ruled his North African country from 1987 until 2011 and was viewed by some as a bulwark against Islamist extremism, but faced criticism for muzzling the opposition.

Driven out by protests, Ben Ali fled Tunisia for Saudi Arabia, where he died in exile in 2019, aged 83.

Ben Ali himself was sentenced several times to life in prison, including for the bloody suppression of protests in the last weeks of his autocratic rule.