Toppled by the Arab Spring, François Picard's panel defines the legacy of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and reacts to breaking news of the death of the late Tunisian strongman who died in exile in Saudi Arabia at 83.

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His downfall will always be synonymous with those heady days of January 2011 and the Arab Spring. Tunisia's former strongman has died in exile in Saudi Arabia. Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali had been suffering from cancer. He was 83. Overnight, the all powerful head of state security who'd grabbed power in a bloodless coup two decades earlier... was forced to flee when Tunisians rose up.

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