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Shoes that
once belonged to Leila Ben Ali on display in Tunis on
December 22, 2012. (AFP,
Fethi Belaid)
|
GAMMARTH,
Tunisia — Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali kicked off viewing on Saturday
for an auction of thousands of luxury items once owned by ousted dictator Zine
El Abidine Ben Ali and his family.
Jebali
inspected 40 luxury cars, thousands of clothing, jewellery items and art works
on the eve of the public auction which is being held in the Tunis suburb of
Gammarth in a bid to raise millions of euros for government coffers.
Highlight
of the month-long sale is expected to be the cars, which include a Lamborghini
Gallardo LP 460, a Bentley Continental sports car, an armoured Cadillac and a
Maybach 62.
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Cars that
belonged to Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his family on
display in Tunis on
December 22, 2012 (AFP, FETHI BELAID)
|
Suits
belonging to the toppled despot are expected to go for 3,000 euros each, while
coats belonging to his wife Leila Trabelsi, who was notorious for her expensive
tastes, could fetch as much as 4,000 euros.
Her
handbags are expected fetch 3,000 euros, while the couple's footwear is
expected to command prices ranging from 100 to 300 euros.
 |
A woman
holds a coat that once belonged to Leila Ben Ali in Tunis
on December 22, 2012.
(AFP, Fethi Belaid)
|
Acting finance minister Slim Besbes told reporters earlier this week that items valued at less than 10,000 dinars (5,000 euros) would be sold at fixed price, but that anything priced above that would be put to auction.
The
government hopes to raise at least 10 million euros from the sale.
Besbes said
the items belonged to Ben Ali and 114 of his relatives.
The public
can view the sale items from Sunday for an entry charge of 30 dinars, a stiff
amount in a country where the minimum wage is just 320 dinars a month.
Ben Ali,
who fled in the face of the first of last year's Arab Spring uprisings, lives
in exile in Saudi Arabia with his wife.
His
overthrow has done little, however, to address the economic grievances that
fuelled the revolt, with protests against the new government multiplying in
recent weeks.
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