Ousted Tunisian leader dies at 83 in Saudi exile

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the former Tunisian president who was the first leader to fall in the Arab Spring, died yesterday in Saudi Arabia aged 83.

Some viewed Ben Ali, who ruled from 1987 until 2011, as a bulwark against Islamist extremism, but he faced criticism for muzzling the opposition and resisting democracy.

He was toppled amid anger over unemployment and high prices, and fled to Saudi Arabia. Similar uprisings then ousted Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya and triggered the ongoing Syrian war.