Tinisia: Ben Ali's nephews involved in a Yachts trafficking case

Ajaccio (France) - Eight French people suspected of involvement in trafficking of yachts between France and Tunisia, for which two nephews of Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali are also suspected to appear Wednesday in court.

•     They must be tried in criminal court in Ajaccio, Corsica, a French island in the Mediterranean.
  
      One person suspected of established relation between sponsors and thieves is in custody.
  
      Suspected of being sponsors of the theft of three yachts, one in Corsica and two on the Cote d'Azur (Southern France) in 2006, two nephews by marriage of President Ben Ali, Imed and Moaz Trabelsi, could, under a Franco-Tunisian judicial convention be tried in their country.
  
      The separation of  procedures was denounced by defenders of some French prisoners.
  
      Both brothers were charged in May 2008 by a Tunisian judge for "complicity to theft by organized gangs," as part of an international rogatory commission issued in early 2008 by the magistrate of the court of Ajaccio, Jean-Bastien Risson.
  
      Because of the confusion surrounding this case, the prosecutor of Ajaccio, Thomas Pison, must at the outset of the hearing clarify the proceedings.
  
      The case erupted with theft in May 2006 of the yacht of a former president of the private bank Lazard, Bruno Roger Bonifacio, the southernmost tip of Corsica.
  
      A survey conducted by private insurers of the vessel has allowed to find it in the port of Sidi Bou Said, a posh suburb north of Tunis. The " Beru Ma" which had been masked and painted, had been quietly returned to its owner, a relative of the former French president Jacques Chirac.
  
      The public inquiry subsequently established that the robbery was linked to those of two other luxury ships in Lavandou and Cannes in southern France and a dozen people were arrested.
  
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.