TUNIS // Relatives of toppled president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali were arrested trying to flee the country with jewels and cash, a police chief alleged yesterday.
Colonel Samir Tarhouni said 28 members of Ben Ali's family were held as they tried to leave Tunisia as the regime fell.
Ben Ali's presidential security chief had ordered police to allow the group to fly out on January 14, he said as he spoke out about the day the authoritarian ruler quit after 23 years in power, defeated by popular revolt.
But Col Tarhouni said he and his colleagues defied the order from Ali Seriati, now on trial over his role in the attempted escapes.
They arrested 28 relatives of Ben Ali and his controversial wife Leila Trabelsi on the airport tarmac.
"An official at the airport alerted me that members of the family of Leila Trabelsi were going to leave the country in a private plane," said the Anti-Terrorist Brigade officer, who had been called to give a public account of the events.
"I took the initiative to go to the area with 11 of my colleagues, without receiving orders from my superiors.
"Ali Seriati called me twice to free them. I hung up."
The 28 relatives were arrested on a bus driving them to a plane on the tarmac of the airport.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN MARITIME DISPUTE
2000: Israel withdraws from Lebanon after nearly 30 years without an officially demarcated border. The UN establishes the Blue Line to act as the frontier.
2007: Lebanon and Cyprus define their respective exclusive economic zones to facilitate oil and gas exploration. Israel uses this to define its EEZ with Cyprus
2011: Lebanon disputes Israeli-proposed line and submits documents to UN showing different EEZ. Cyprus offers to mediate without much progress.
2018: Lebanon signs first offshore oil and gas licencing deal with consortium of France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek.
2018-2019: US seeks to mediate between Israel and Lebanon to prevent clashes over oil and gas resources.
History's medical milestones
1799 - First small pox vaccine administered
1846 - First public demonstration of anaesthesia in surgery
1861 - Louis Pasteur published his germ theory which proved that bacteria caused diseases
1895 - Discovery of x-rays
1923 - Heart valve surgery performed successfully for first time
1928 - Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
1953 - Structure of DNA discovered
1952 - First organ transplant - a kidney - takes place
1954 - Clinical trials of birth control pill
1979 - MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, scanned used to diagnose illness and injury.
1998 - The first adult live-donor liver transplant is carried out
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