Zine El Abidine Ben Ali Ben Ali also played a lead role in the UN's proclaiming 2010 as the International Year of Youth. Ben Ali's government largely bucked the trend toward greater democracy in Africa. It was deemed authoritarian and undemocratic by independent international human rights groups such as Amnesty International, Freedom House, and Protection International. They criticised Tunisian officials for not observing international standards of political rights and interfering with the work of local human rights organisations. In "The Economist"s 2010 Democracy Index, Tunisia was classified as an authoritarian regime, ranking 144th out of 167 countries studied. In 2008, in terms of freedom of
Timeline of the Arab Spring former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison, by an Egyptian court. On 13 June, the former Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was sentenced to prison, by a Tunisian court. On 16th & 17th June, the Egyptian people voted in the 2nd round of a presidential run-off election, in which Mohammed Morsi received the most votes. On 24 June 2012, Egypt's election commission announced that Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi had won Egypt's presidential runoff. Morsi won by a narrow margin over Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister under deposed leader Hosni Mubarak. The commission