Couscous connection to the Canadian writer Lise Garon, "Haddad is probably the only Tunisian to have signed an article about the involvement of the president's brother in international drug trafficking." Ben Ali was found murdered on 14 May 1996 in a Tunis apartment. There was much speculation about who had ordered his death. Couscous connection The couscous connection was an international drug trafficking gang based in Paris in the 1980s. The gang imported heroin and cocaine from Tunisia via Amsterdam and Brussels to Paris, where they distributed the drugs. The trial of the gang members in 1992 received widespread publicity since the
Couscous connection was found guilty "in absentia" and sentenced to ten years imprisonment. As part of the same case 23 other gang members, mostly Tunisian, were sentenced to various punishments. On 1 December 1992 Ben Ali's French lawyer met his client in Tunis. The lawyer gave a press conference in which he claimed there was no evidence that Ben Ali deserved the sentence. He said the conviction was due to political manipulation. He blamed Islamic fundamentalists for concocting the charges in an effort to blacken the family name. Mezri Haddad signed an article in "Libération" in 1992 about the "Couscous connection". According