Tunisian former president's wife 'fled country with £38 million in gold'

Tunisian protesters were goaded to new pinnacles of indignation on Monday as it emerged that the former president's wife, Leila Trabelsi, spirited 1.5 tonnes of the central bank's gold onto the aircraft that flew her and her family to Dubai. 

Intelligence officials in Paris told Le Monde, the French newspaper, that Mrs Trabelsi visited the bank last month, when protests were gathering momentum, and instructed the governor to hand over gold ingots worth £38 million.

Although he initially refused to comply, the personal intervention of the former president ensured that the gold was handed over.

The disclosure of Mrs Trabelsi's final act of avarice has enraged Tunisians, but not surprised them. The first lady's love of showy opulence and reputation for grasping corruption made her and her equally unpopular nephews the country's principle hate figures.

Three days after they ousted their president, Tunisian protesters returned to the battle-scarred streets of Tunis yesterday to demand the complete purge of former regime loyalists from government positions.

Demonstrators massed in the capital city's Independence Square, defying emergency laws forbidding public gatherings in an effort to complete the job begun last Friday when they forced Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, their president for 23 years, to flee the country.

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/tunisia/8265025/Tunisian-former-presidents-wife-fled-country-with-38-million-in-gold.html