Zine El Abidine Ben Ali Ben Ali "is not in the state that he's said to be in" and that "a meeting with his client took place under 'normal circumstances'". Zine El Abidine Ben Ali Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (, '; born 3 September 1936), commonly known as Ben Ali, is a Tunisian former politician who served as President of Tunisia from 1987 until his ousting in 2011. Ben Ali was appointed Prime Minister in October 1987, and he assumed the Presidency on 7 November 1987 in a bloodless coup d'état that ousted President Habib Bourguiba, who was declared incompetent. Ben Ali was subsequently
Rached Ghannouchi was again released in 1988. He moved to the United Kingdom as a political exile, where he lived for 22 years. He attended The Islamic Committee for Palestine conference in Chicago in 1989. Following the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Al-Ghannushi denounced King Fahd of Saudi Arabia for the "colossal crime" of inviting the U.S. to deploy forces. He also called for a Muslim boycott of American goods, planes and ships. He has also been criticized for calling for jihad against Israel. Ghannouchi continued to criticise Tunisian politics and the regime of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Following popular unrest