PARIS – Allies of France’s foreign minister fought off embarrassing allegations of links to Tunisia’s ousted leader on Wednesday after a report that the owner of a private jet she used was close to his regime. The allegations raised pressure on the minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, following France’s U-turn over authoritarian ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s regime after he bowed to popular protests and fled Tunisia last month.
The investigative weekly Le Canard Enchaine reported in its Wednesday edition that Alliot-Marie and her family accepted a flight on a jet owned by Tunisian businessman Aziz Miled, who it said is close to Ben Ali’s clan. Alliot-Marie’s camp confirmed she had accepted a flight during a holiday in late December last year – after the start of protests against Ben Ali – but denied the tycoon was a close associate of the then-dictator.
Her companion Patrick Ollier, a French junior minister for parliamentary relations who travelled with her on the plane, insisted that on the contrary Miled’s business had been “plundered” by the regime. “When we arrived in Tunis, Mr Miled, a friend of mine, offered since he has a private jet and owns the Nouvelair airline to take us to Tabarka by plane in 20 minutes rather than spend two hours in a car on mountain roads,” he said.
