Ex-Tunisia president gets 20 years in absentia

A Tunisian court sentenced ousted president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali's interior minister to 12 years in jail on Wednesday over the killing of protesters in the central towns where the Arab Spring began but found his security chief innocent.

The judge at the military court in Kef also sentenced Ben Ali himself to life in jail over his role in the deaths but the former strongman is in exile in Saudi Arabia and unlikely to be extradited soon.(Reuters)