Suha Arafat Tunis - Nabil Zaghdoud   Yasser Arafat's widow Suha described Leila Trabelsi, deposed Tunisian leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali as an evil woman "who could deal with evil in seeking to get whatever she wants." In an interview broadcasted on “Nesma TV”, a Tunisian private channel, she said: “I was surprised by all the talks about my involvement in financial corruption in Tunisia.”
She also accused Leila Trabelsi, former Tunisia first lady as “the cause of all my charges.”
“Everyone is trying to interfere in mine and my daughter Zahwa's life, and Leila Ben Ali was the one who fed the rumors,” said Mrs. Arafat, who was speaking from her house in Malta.
She described Leila Ben Ali as “an evil woman who can deal with the evil to get what she wants.”
Mrs. Arafat talked about her relation with Ben Ali’s regime as she used to spend much time in the country and went into business with Ben Ali's wife, Leila Trabelsi to establish the International School of Carthage.
One year after the establishment of the school, Suha Arafat was stripped of her Tunisian citizenship, which she acquired in 2004 after her husband’s death, and was expelled from the country in August 2007, supposedly following a disagreement between her and Leia Ben Ali.
“I was thrown out of my beloved country Tunisia, in the most brutal manner. My entire luggage was thrown into the street,” she said.
Mrs. Arafat praised the Tunisian revolution, and congratulated Tunisia and the Tunisian people for eradicating oppression and dictatorship.
She also talked about slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who tried to help Ben Ali during the revolution. “Muammar Gaddafi tried to help Ben Ali to get back in power,” she said.
She added “and Ben Ali asked Gaddafi for help via a European political charter.”
She denied that the house where she lives in Malta was bought for her by Gaddafi. “I’ve heard a lot of rumors about my modest apartment in Malta. It was said it’s a palace guarded by an army of bodyguards, but today you are here; you can find how it’s simple and a businessman who liked Yasser Arafat a lot gave it to me.”
In the interview, which was broadcast in several episodes, Mrs. Arafat also talked about her private life with Yasser Arafat, who loved her at first sight.