Tunisia seeks arrest of Arafat’s widow

AFP/Tunis

Suha Arafat looks on during an interview yesterday in Malta, after hearing the news that a Tunis court had issued an international arrest warrant against her on charges of corruption

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 yesterday. 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. Justice ministry spokesman Kadhem Zine al-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. Suha Arafat was subsequently declared persona non grata, stripped of her Tunisian nationality in 2007, less than a year after acquiring it, and expelled. She settled in Malta, where her brother served as Palestinian ambassador. In an interview with AFP at her Malta home, Arafat said she would fight the charges “as I fought a lot of things”. “I was so much astonished, badly astonished actually because I was a victim of the Tunisian dictatorship,” said the 48-year-old, adding that she had “not been informed officially” of any warrant and had read about it in the press. “I have all the documents, all the information, everything that proves that I have nothing to do with that school,” she said, in reference to the Carthage International School.