Belhassen Trabelsi. Photo Source: Tunisia Daily

Belhassen Trabelsi has gone off the radar screen of Canadian authorities.

The brother in law of ex-president Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, Trabelsi was scheduled to be deported to Tunisia on May 31. He had previously been fighting for the right to stay in Canada, but the the country’s ambassador to Tunisia, Carol McQueen, said in January that he had exhausted all possible options for obtaining refugee or asylum status.

Trabelsi, who is the brother of former first lady Leïla Ben Ali and who in 2011 was sentenced in absentia to fines and 15 years in prison for corruption and other crimes allegedly committed under the old regime, reportedly failed to show up for a meeting scheduled for May 24 with officials from the Canadian Border Services Agency. According to the Canadian Broadcast Company, Trabelsi’s own lawyer has said that he has not been able to reach his client and has no idea where he is.

Trabelsi’s sister, Leïla Ben Ali. Photo Source: Tunisia Daily

Last month, Trabelsi began the application procedure for the arbitration process sanctioned by the Tunisian Truth and Dignity Commission (known by its French acronym, IVD), which could theoretically drop all charges against him in exchange for a fine.

Hatem El Euchi, the minister of state property and land management, who works closely with IVD, confirmed to Tunisia Live that the Trabelsi’s lawyer sent a request for his client to take part in the commission’s arbitration process.

El Euchi added, however, that the process cannot go forward while Trabelsi is missing. “This reconciliation procedure … cannot be put in place legally speaking unless Trabelsi is back in Tunisia and now, with his disappearance, everything is nullified,” he said.

The crimes for which Trabelsi was convicted include exporting currency illegally and removing significant quantities of precious metals from the country without authorization.