Leïla Ben Ali
Leïla Ben Ali | |
|---|---|
| ليلى بن علي | |
Leïla Ben Ali presides over a meeting of the Arab Women Organization, November 2010. | |
| First Lady of Tunisia | |
| In office 26 January 1992 – 14 January 2011 | |
| President | Zine El Abidine Ben Ali |
| Preceded by | Naïma Ben Ali |
| Succeeded by | Lilia Mebazaa |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Leïla Trabelsi 14 October 1956 |
| Spouse(s) |
Khelil Maaouia (divorced) |
| Children | 3 |
Leïla Ben Ali (Tunisian Arabic: ليلى بن علي Līlē bin ʿAlī; née Trabelsi [الطرابلسي, iṭ-Ṭrēbelsī]; born 14 October 1956) is the widow of former Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and served as First Lady of Tunisia from their marriage in 1992 to Ben Ali's overthrow during the Tunisian revolution in 2011.
Leïla Ben Ali was the president of the Arab Women Organization and chair of the BASMA Association, a charitable organization working to secure employment for the disabled. In July 2010, Mrs. Ben Ali founded SAIDA to improve care for cancer patients in Tunisia. Following the Tunisian revolution, she fled with her husband and three children into exile in Saudi Arabia. During her time as First Lady of Tunisia, she is believed to have enriched herself and her family through gross corruption and embezzlement of state money to finance a lavish lifestyle, factors that contributed to the protests against the regime of Ben Ali at the end of 2010. As of 2011 she is wanted by Interpol on behest of the Tunisian judiciary for high treason and money laundering.