The former president of Tunisia Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali who ruled his country with an iron fist has breathed his last in Saudi Arabia where he had been living in exile.
Ben Ali was 83 at the time of his death.
His strongarm tactics inspired what came to be called the Arab Spring, a wave of revolution that swept across the Arab world.
He was the first to be ousted by the wave which was ignited by a fruit vendor called Mohamed Bouazizi who set himself on fire to protest harassment by law enforcement officers.
In 2011, Ben Ali jumped on a plane with his family and fled to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to seek refuge after failing to contain mounting street protests.
Diplomatic entreaties by Tunisia to the Saudi monarchy to have him extradited were flatly rejected.
He was tried in absentia over an array of corruption charges and sentenced to 35 years in prison and a 66 million US dollars fine.
Ben Ali according to BBC, is credited with ensuring stability and a level of economic prosperity during his iron-fisted rule but criticised for stifling political dissent and engaging in corruption that a US ambassador said bled the country dry.
The Guardian says the former president had been undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.
He will be buried in Mecca according to his lawyer.
#hivisasainternational