Tunisian dictator to stand trial

Tunisia's interim government has announced that judgment day is near for ousted dictator Zine al-Abidine ben Ali.

The new administration will hold trial this coming Monday, according to a statement made by Interim Prime Minister Beji Caid Sebsi on Al Jazeera earlier today.

The 23-year ruler of the North African nation will not appear in court. Ben Ali left Tunisia for Saudi Arabia on January 14, after the escalation of a popular movement now commonly referred to as The Jasmine Revolution.

The Saudi government has made no movements toward extradition.

But the trial will go on -- in absentia.

In February, the Tunisian Anti-Corruption Commission found 27 million dollars in cash at his palace in Sidi Bou Said, a northern suburb of Tunis.

More interesting, perhaps, is that the commission will try Ben Ali for drug possession.

At Ben Ali's presidential palace in Carthage, a Tunisian town known for Roman its ruins, authorities report that they found a stash of unspecified narcotics, rumored to be hashish. 2 kilograms.

Meanwhile, unemployment among Tunisian youth is reported by various sources to have hovered around 30 percent before the self-immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi and the beginning of the Tunisian revolution that shook Egypt and then the entire Arab world.

The Tunisian Web community's sentiments about Ben Ali haven't changed much since his January 14 departure.

This popular home video of Ben Ali visiting the United States in luxury has evoked feelings of hatred from those who remember his regime most intimately.