Ex-Tunisian president's wife's greed drove nation to revolution

Tunis (Tunisia), Jan.17 (ANI): The greed shown by former Tunisian President Ben Ali's wife, Leila, forced people to revolt against the ruling dispensation.

Dubbed as the Imelda Marcos of the Arab world, Leila, a former hairdresser, was known for her love of wealth and its trappings.

The woman, who came from a humble background, was branded 'The Regent of Carthage' for her power behind the throne and her love of money, luxury cars and opulent homes.

This is why so much anger on the streets and the family known as 'The Mafia' was a target of its attack directly.

Looters, sick of the family's nepotism, filmed themselves on mobile phones destroying the family's expensive cars at one of their villas and riding motorbikes across the manicured laws.

Ali and Leila's two daughters have fled to the Disneyland Hotel in Paris, where they are holed up in 300-pound-a-night VIP suites.

Nesrine Ben Ali, 24, and her sister Cyrine are under guard there while their father Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali is being given sanctuary in Saudi Arabia.

On Sunday, the French government said members of the ex-President's family would be expelled.

Much of the corrupt family's 3.5 billion pound fortune is banked in France, the former colonial power in Tunisia. (ANI)