Chokri Belaid form a temporary "national unity" government. Belaïd was born in the town of Djebel Jelloud in Tunisia on 26 November 1964. He was a student activist in the 1980s. He worked as a lawyer and was also part of the defence team of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein during his trial for crimes against humanity. He spoke out against a 2008 clampdown on miners, and was a noted political critic of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the strongman Tunisian leader in office for 23 years, whose 2011 self-exile to Saudi Arabia was the first tangible result of the Arab Spring
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali living in exile in Jeddah, the same city where Idi Amin, the late dictator of Uganda, lived in exile until his death in 2003, after being removed from power in 1979, at the end of the Ugandan-Tanzanian War. Other close associates and family members who attempted to leave the country via Tunis-Carthage International Airport were prevented from doing so by the army, which had seized the airport. At about 18:00, Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi went on state television to say "Since the president is temporarily unable to exercise his duties, it has been decided that the prime minister will exercise