When the 23-year reign of ex-Tunisian President Zine el Abidine ben Ali crumbled this year after nationwide popular protests that forced him into exile on Jan. 14, dozens of his relatives and those of his wife, Leila Trabelsi, rushed to the Tunis airport on the same night to try to flee the country--allegedly with pockets stashed with cash and jewels.

Most of them didn't get far though, partly because one pilot is said to have refused to take off after he found out that members of the group were among the passengers.

Their escape plan had apparently also been foiled by the Tunisian police. Earlier this week, a Tunisian police colonel claimed he and a group of police officers caught 22 of the group on a bus driving them to a private plane on the airport tarmac, reported Agence-France Presse.

Ben Ali and Trabelsi managed to leave, however, and were granted refuge in Saudi Arabia.

On Friday, a Tunis court sentenced 25 relatives of Ben Ali and his wife to prison terms in the so-called "Tunis-Carthage Airport Case" with jail sentences ranging from a couple of months to six years and fines totaling 200 million Tunisian dinars ($140 million) for illegally trying to escape the country with money and jewelry, according to the official Tunisian news agency TAP.

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During Tunisia's popular uprising, which led to the ouster of President Zine el Abidine ben Ali in January, tourists deserted the country en masse.

Advertising agencies are now trying to attract tourists and sunbathers back to Tunisia's beaches and Roman ruins through a controversial billboard campaign that is stirring the pot in foreign capitals.

One billboard appearing on public buses in London features an image of a woman receiving a back massage with the accompanying text, "They say that in Tunisia some people receive heavy-handed treatment."

Another poster reportedly running in the campaign depicts the country's fabled Roman ruins next to the line: "They say Tunisia is nothing but ruins."

The Tunisian newspaper Sabah (link in Arabic) reported Monday that Hezbollah's Al-Manar television was allegedly paid $100,000 to polish up the image of deposed Tunisian dictator Zine el Abidine ben Ali. 

In addition to bribing Al-Manar, the former president also paid other international news agencies to portray him as a "promoter of human rights" and a leader of a country that respected the rule of law, Sabah reported, cited documents it had obtained from a secretive Tunisian propaganda arm.

According to the Tunisian newspaper, Ben Ali was purportedly successful in suppressing national media by portraying them as mouthpieces of local mafias.

At least 300 Tunisians died during the monthlong uprising that culminated in the overthrow of the regime of Zine el Abedine ben Ali, reported Juan Mendez, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, after completing his first mission to the country since the establishment of the interim government. 

The death toll in the country of 10 million, signficantly higher than previous figures, came as a surprise to those who considered the revolution to have been a smooth and peaceful transition. 

"Another 700 were injured," said the special rapporteur citing information provided by the interim Tunisian administration. 

After the International Criminal Court prosecutor's requested arrest warrants for Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, son Seif Islam and brother-in-law Abdullah Sanussi for crimes against humanity, Babylon & Beyond spoke with Widney Brown, a human rights lawyer and senior director for international law and policy at Amnesty International in London. She helped lobby for passage of the ICC's Rome Statute in 1988 that covers such warrants.

Q: How significant is the prosecutor's request for these ICC warrants?

A: It’s a good sign that being a head of state is not seen as a protection against having a warrant issued when there are signs you have broken the law.

Q: But how effective are these warrants, given that other embattled leaders -- for instance, President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir in Sudan -- have had warrants issued against them and remained in power, traveling the world without being arrested?

A: [Bashir's] world has definitely gotten smaller. But it is distressing to see the number of countries that seem very happy they don’t have to arrest him. He’s being very careful about where he’s going. It’s not a good sign that you can have an outstanding warrant for a year and nothing’s been done.

Q: The warrant for Kadafi would only cover crimes committed since the current conflict began Feb. 15. Could past crimes be included, too?

A: What you have also with Col. Kadafi is not only the crimes he is alleged to have committed in the conflict now, but the crimes he committed in the past, some of which are ongoing. The prosecutor might be able to look at ongoing crimes. It’s not as if there’s going to be a dearth of things to investigate.

Q: What would be considered "ongoing crimes?"

A: For instance, enforced disappearances.

Q: Would that be similar to those disappeared in South America's "dirty wars" in the 1970s?

A: Yes, like in South America's dirty wars. That was when the term was created, when governments found it very effective to disappear people. Quite frankly, that’s what’s happening in Syria now. Why they’re being rounded up is pretextual or illegal. They’re being held incommunicado, they don’t have lawyers and we think they’re being subjected to torture and disappeared into a black hole. Things are worse now in Syria than they were in Libya when they made the Kadafi referral.

Q: So you and Amnesty officials think the ICC should pursue warrants against Syrian officials as well?

A: For the ICC to maintain its legitimacy, it needs to maintain its consistency and not irreparably politicize justice. We have called on the ICC to make a referral on Syria, to refer the situation to the prosecutor.

Q: Why Syria and not other countries in the region, such as Bahrain, Yemen or Egypt?

A: When the military is really turning on civilians in a systematic way, that certainly is a trigger to say this could be crimes against humanity. It’s not to say we’re not looking at evidence we’re  gathering in places like Yemen, Bahrain and northern Iraq to see what evidence there is. All these countries didn’t ratify the Rome Statute. So you want to go to the U.N. with really good evidence. You don't want it to be a case where they cannot defend their own actions in terms of making the referral.

Q: How many countries in the region have not ratified the Rome Statute that allows for these warrants to be issued?

A: The only country that ratified it in the Middle East was Jordan. Egypt and Tunisia have said they will, but they have not deposited instruments of ratification with the U.N. yet.

The interim Egyptian authorities have also said they will investigate and prosecute those responsible for crimes during the revolution.

Q: But how can you guarantee they will investigate fairly when a new president has not even been elected?

A: If it turns out that the investigation is a sham, then you revisit the case and try to get it before the International Criminal Court. People have a gut feeling that justice is a local concept. They want justice in their own countries and you want to support that. In Egypt, for instance, you want to build a credible justice system because then if they do it right, you’ve helped rebuild a critical institution.

-- Molly Hennessy-Fiske in Cairo

Photo: A man looks at portraits of people who killed or disappeared under Moammar Kadafi's regime in Benghazi, Libya, on Monday. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, announced Monday that he would seek arrest warrants against the Libyan leader, son Seif Islam and the country's intelligence chief on charges of crimes against humanity. Credit: Rodrigo Abd /Associated Press.

While Iran has welcomed uprisings against Western-backed regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, it dealt harshly with its own protesters and has been worried about recent events in Syria. Moreover, countries that threw out pro-Western dictators are not moving closer to Iran.

Egypt's and Tunisia’s future foreign policies are more likely to resemble Turkey's in becoming more independent while remaining allied with the West. And Iran's soft power has decreased as its regime looks increasingly repressive and new models of revolutionary success have emerged in Tunisia, Egypt, and other parts of the Arab world.   

Turkey, for its part, bungled the opportunity to take advantage of this historic shift to bolster its influence in the Arab world. The Arab uprisings are effectively calling for the Arab world to be more like Turkey: democratic, with a vibrant civil society, political pluralism, secularism alongside Islam, and a productive and fairly balanced economy. However, after expressing clear support for Egyptian protesters, Turkey has hedged its bets in Libya and Syria.

Eman Obeidy, the Libyan woman who entered the international spotlight after claiming Moammar Kadafi's militiamen gang raped her in March, apparently fled to Tunisia this week.

Obeidy told CNN that she crossed the border from Tripoli Thursday with the help of a defecting military officer in a military car.

The car was stopped several times at checkpoints, Obeidy said, but when the officer showed his permit, they were allowed to pass. She entered Tunisia through the Dahibah border crossing using a refugee document, she said.

Obeidy rose to fame after bursting into Tripoli's Rixos Hotel on March 26 to tell international reporters that she had been held for two days, beaten and raped by 15 men after being seized at a checkpoint east of Tripoli.

She was dragged away from the hotel, and previously told CNN that was she interrogated for three days by men who threw food and poured water on her.

Activists and Facebook pages sprang up in her defense.

She told CNN the trip this week from Tripoli was "very tiring." European diplomats drove her from the border to Tunis where they were sheltering her Sunday, diplomatic sources told CNN.

Tunisia's interim government imposed a curfew late Saturday after riot police fired tear gas and scuffled with hundreds of anti-government protesters.

The Interior Ministry was quoted on state television as saying the curfew would remain in effect from 9 p.m. Saturday until 5 a.m. Sunday.

The curfew came as protesters took to the streets of the North African country, where the "Arab Spring" of unrest began in January, after fears spread that the interim administration plans to renege on its commitment to democracy after the removal of President Zine el Abidine ben Ali.

Tensions increased this week after a former interior minister said Ben Ali loyalists might seize power in a coup if Islamists won elections scheduled for July.

A Facebook page calling for the former minister to become the president attracted more than 10,000 "Likes," according to Al Jazeera satellite network, before it was deleted Saturday with the return of the Tunisian Internet Agency, a censorship tool of the Ben Ali regime.

The agency blocked the Facebook page of activist Jalel Brick under a new censorship law that, the Tunisian news website Webdo reported Saturday, has been quietly passed by the interim government.

Thousands of anti-government protesters flooded the streets of Syria's major cities Friday in what they called a "day of defiance," chanting demands to overthrow the regime of President Bashar Assad.

The southern town of Jassem, near where the 6-week-old protest movement started in the city of Dara, saw some of the largest protests Friday. A video posted online was said to show thousands of Syrians shouting, "The people will no longer be afraid," and "We sacrifice ourselves for you, Dara."

Dara has been under siege by government forces for almost two weeks. The Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies released a statement Friday alleging human rights abuses by Syrian troops and security forces in the city.

"The Syrian government is repeating the same actions and responses it undertook in 1982 during the Hama massacre. The government is collectively punishing Dara and other cities that are protesting against the Assad regime," said Radwan Ziadeh, the center's director. 

 Other videos posted online Friday were said to show hundreds of women and children taking to the streets in the Syrian capital, olive branches in hand.

Wissam Tarif, executive director of the Syrian human rights group Insan, reported at least three demonstrations Friday in Homs, where at least five people died and 17 were injured. Witnesses in Homs said they saw nine tanks and hundreds of soldiers in the Bayada and Bab Tadmur areas.

People said to be residents of Baba Amro in Homs can be seen in an online video chanting, "God is great" and "The people want to overthrow the regime." A narrator explains that protesters marched even as tanks encircled the city.

"Nothing will break our spirit," he says.

In the video, a person can be seen carrying a Tunisian flag, a reference to anti-government protests in that country that sparked the "Arab Spring" demonstrations. Another person carries a banner that says, "Homs says go" -- a message intended for Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"The people of Homs are growing even more persistent and less fearful. There is no fear," said a Homs resident who asked not to be identified.

Between 700 and 1,000 demonstrators marched in the Midan area of central Damascus, Tarif said. About a dozen people were detained, including Riad Seif, a prominent opposition figure and activist, human rights officials said.

Both Ibn al Nafis and Sham Hospitals in Damascus treated people injured by gunfire during Friday's protests, Tarif said.

Despite mass arrests in the Damascus suburb of Saqba, hundreds reportedly marched Friday with signs that said "We sacrifice ourselves for you Dara, for you Duma, for you Muadamiya," while they chanted "Nothing can scare us."

-- Roula Hajjar in Beirut

Video credit: YouTube

As Egypt and Tunisia move away from their former regimes, the political path seems much clearer than the economic one. Both countries are setting the foundations to shift to a democratic political regime that will give all political movements the right to participate through free and fair elections. Disagreements may surface over details. But consensus exists on the transition to a pluralist party system that derives its legitimacy from the people.

The process of economic transition, however, appears more contentious. Some observers argue for greater trade and financial liberalization and for opening up more space for the private sector. They blame the rentier economy, the prevalence of corruption and the dominance by those close to the regime for limiting real economic competition.

Meanwhile, others demand that the state intervene more in the economy. In their opinion, privatization and excessive reliance on market mechanisms contributed to a rise in unemployment, poverty and inequality between the rich minority and the deprived majority.

Tunisians are optimistic about the future of their country but remain concerned about the economy and deeply divided on the role religion should play in politics, a new poll finds.

The study, commissioned by the Washington-based International Republican Institute, claims to be the first independent opinion poll since the fall of former President Zine el Abidine ben Ali. It comes at a critical juncture for Tunisia.

On July 24, Tunisians are expected to vote for a national assembly that will be responsible for rewriting the constitution and determining crucial elements of the political system, such as the distribution of powers within the government and whether to legally separate matters of religion and state.

According to the poll, 79% of respondents said Tunisia is going in the right direction, despite the fact that 66% categorized the economy as somewhat or very bad. Job creation topped the list of priorities respondents said the interim government should be pursuing, followed by free and fair elections and stimulation of the economy.

However, respondents were sharply divided on the role religion should play in politics, with 48% saying they were in favor of a political system based on religion and 44% preferring a secular system. Among those, 27% said they felt the Tunisian political system should be "strongly" secular and 21% said it should be "strongly" based on religion. Urban respondents were more likely than their rural counterparts to support a secular system, as were younger respondents over older ones.

The poll's results appear to strengthen comparisons between Tunisia and Turkey, which has achieved mixed results with its attempts to blend a secular political system with the Islamic values shared by many Turks.

-- Meris Lutz in Beirut

Photo: A wave of popular protests driven partially by economic woes forced former President Zine el Abidine ben Ali from power earlier this year. Credit: AFP/Getty Images