Seifallah Ben Hassine Fighting Group. He fled Tunisia following a crackdown by the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali against the student movements in 1987. He was sentenced in absentia by the Tunis military court to two years in prison for his participation in the events. He first moved to Morocco where he studied in the Faculty of Legal Sciences at the Mohammed I University. It was at this time he married. He later went to the United Kingdom in the 1990s and studied under the al-Qaeda cleric Abu Qatada. He then fought alongside Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and in 2000
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali attaché in Tunisian embassy of Morocco and Spain before being appointed General Director of National Security in 1977. In April 1980, Ben Ali was appointed ambassador to Poland, and served in that position for four years. He also served as the military intelligence chief from 1964 to 1974 and later Director General of national security between December 1977 and 1980 until he was appointed as Minister of Defense. Soon after the Tunisian bread riots in January 1984, he was reappointed director-general of national security. Ben Ali subsequently served as Minister of State in charge of the interior before being appointed