Tunisia issues arrest warrant against Suha Arafat
TUNIS — A Tunisian court has issued an international arrest warrant against the widow of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat over alleged corruption, a justice official said Monday.
Suha Arafat, who was stripped of her Tunisian citizenship in 2007 following a dispute with the former ruling family and currently lives in Malta, vehemently denied any corruption allegations and said she was ready to lay the case bare.
Justice ministry spokesman Kadhem Zine el Abidine told AFP that a Tunis court had issued the warrant against 48-year-old Suha Arafat, but gave no reason for the move.
According to Tunisian papers, Arafat’s widow is wanted over alleged corruption dating to the spring of 2007, when she founded the Carthage International School in Tunis with the country’s much-vilified former first lady Leila Trabelsi.
The two women then fell out, purportedly over Suha Arafat’s criticism of an alleged move by Trabelsi to close down another private school that would have been in direct competition with their joint venture.
According to a US diplomatic cable revealed by WikiLeaks, Suha Arafat met the then US ambassador after the dispute and lashed out at the ruling family.
She said that now ousted dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali would spend all day in his residence running after his young son and “simply does what his wife asks him to do”.
She was subsequently declared persona non grata, stripped of her Tunisian nationality in 2007, less than a year after acquiring it, and expelled.