Moncef Ben Salem Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Sfax in 1983 He was a member of the Ennahda Movement. He was critical of Presidents Habib Bourguiba and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, calling Bourguiba a "zionist". As a result of his political activism under Ben Ali, he was jailed for eighteen months from 1987 to 1989, and from 1990 to 1993. In 1987, his passport was revoked, and he was forbidden from leaving Tunisia or travelling inside the country for twenty years, as were his children. From 1993 to 2011, he was forced to live under surveillance. He was also forbidden to work as a
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali month of protests against his rule, he was forced to flee to Saudi Arabia along with his wife Leïla Ben Ali and their three children. The interim Tunisian government asked for Interpol to issue an international arrest warrant, charging him for money laundering and drugs trafficking. A Tunisian court sentenced Ben Ali and his wife "in absentia" to 35 years in prison on 20 June 2011 on charges of theft and unlawful possession of cash and jewellery. In June 2012, a Tunisian court sentenced him "in absentia" to life imprisonment for inciting violence and murder and another life sentence by