Corinthia had given Ben Ali's in-law the sack

The international hotel chain Corinthia Group has dispelled claims that the ‘most notorious’ member of Tunisia’s ruling family had muscled the group out of their hotel interests in Tunisia.

Belhassen Trabelsi, the brother-in-law of ousted Tunisian president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, was the owner of a modest cement company before his sister married into power in 1992.

But just years later, he found himself in business deals he would have never imagined having – amongst them being a part-owner of a Corinthia hotel, the luxury Khamsa hotel in Tunis.

Trabelsi is mentioned in La Régente de Carthage, a 2009 book chronicling Ben Ali’s 23-year Tunisian kleptocracy, as a “vulgar” entrepreneur and a “hoodlum” by co-authors Nicolas Beau and Catherine Graciet.

But a spokesperson for the Corinthia Group has denied claims carried in the book that Trabelsi had managed to buy out his Maltese partners: on the contrary, it was Corinthia that gave him the boot. “Trabelsi was one of several part-owners, amongst them Tunisian banks, with a 6.5% share. He proved to be very difficult and there were problems with him. In 1999, after being bought out, the Khamsa became fully owned by Corinthia,” a spokesperson said.

The Corinthia group had been brought in to run the hotel back in 1997. Beau and Graciet however claim that Trabelsi managed to designate himself as some sort of managing director and “had the director nominated by the Maltese expelled, manu militari” – using the help of the military. This last part has been denied by Corinthia.

Also denied was Trabelsi’s stratagem to gain majority control of the Khamsa through the bank partners in which he enjoyed control. On the contrary, it was Corinthia that bought him out. “It was impossible for us to run the place,” the spokesperson said of the Trabelsi period.

The hotel is still prospering, having now been rebranded as the Ramada Plaza with the Corinthia partnership with Wyndham hotels.

Other enterprises were not as lucky. As US Ambassador Robert Godec noted in a diplomatic cable leaked by Wikileaks, many foreign investors found it hard to operate in the country without giving a cut of their business to member of the ruling family. The McDonalds burger chain lost the chance of a franchise in Tunisia because of its refusal to grant it to someone with “family connections.”

Trabelsi’s family relation to the Ben Ali regime transformed him into one of Tunisia’s richest men, with ownership of a radio station and a newspaper chain, and a low-fares airline that was serviced by national airline Tunisair. In the process, he managed to acquire permanent residency in Canada, where he has now exiled himself, holed up in a Montreal hotel.

As ambassador Godec noted in a July 2008 cable released by WikiLeaks, the Trabelsi family “provoke the greatest ire from Tunisians”– in large part, it seems, because of Belhassen himself. “[He] is the most notorious family member and is rumoured to have been involved in a wide range of corrupt schemes from the recent Banque de Tunisie board shakeup to property expropriation and extortion of bribes.”

Belhassen formed part of Ben Ali’s ruling elite where greed and nepotism earned them the notorious moniker ‘The Mafia’. It was thanks to Ben Ali’s second marriage to Laila, a former hairdresser, that the Trabelsis become rich beyond their wildest dreams.

Another of Ben Ali’s brothers-in-law, Mourad Trabelsi, had a long-standing partnership with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam in tuna farming. Tunisian Tuna SL, his firm, operated the second most powerful tuna fishing fleet in Tunisia.

And it was through Trabelsi’s partnership with Gaddafi that Spanish fishing giant Fuentes Group have direct access to exclusive Libyan waters – the same group that has held interests in Maltese farming operations. Fuentes’s strategic alliance with Trabelsi allowed Fuentes’s fishing fleets to freely operate inside and outside Libyan territorial waters. It was indeed Trabelsi who brooked the Fuentes Group relationship with Libya-based R.H. Marine Services Co., owned by Seif al-Islam.

“President Ben Ali’s extended family is often cited as the nexus of Tunisian corruption,” Godec wrote in a cable to Washington. “Ben Ali’s wife, Leila Ben Ali, and her extended family – the Trabelsis – provoke the greatest ire from Tunisians. Along with the numerous allegations of Trabelsi corruption are often barbs about their lack of education, low social status, and conspicuous consumption.

“While some of the complaints about the Trabelsi clan seem to emanate from a disdain for their nouveau riche inclinations, Tunisians also argue that the Trabelsis’ strong-arm tactics and flagrant abuse of the system make them easy to hate.”