Tunisian President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali and wife Leila Trabelsi were sentenced on June 20th in absentia to 35 years in jail for crimes committed during Ben Ali's 23 years’ tenure, report Mustapha Ajbaili and Dina Al-Shibeeb of Al-Arabiya.

The extensive list of charges included theft, illegal possession of narcotics and weapons, and money laundering. The trial is considered to be one of the first of several projected to take place in the coming months for other high ranking officials.

Ben Ali and his wife sought sanctuary in Saudi Arabia in January following protests, and still reside in the Kingdom. According to Al-Jazeera English, Saudi Arabia has not responded to extradition requests, but Ben Ali responded to the accusations, arguing, “I devoted my life to my country and aspire, at the twilight of my existence, to conserve my honor.”

Al-Masry Al-Youm predicts that the court proceedings will be closely observed by Tunisia’s neighbors, specifically Egypt, where deposed president Hosni Mubarak faces a similar fate.

As Tunisia’s political situation remains uncertain, freedom of expression is progressively challenged as courts rule to enable internet filtering, wrote Houda Trabelsi for Magharebia. After Ben Ali fled Tunisia, internet controls were lifted, which left Islamists concerned.

While conservative lawyers work to reinstate pre-revolution censorship laws, Moez Chakchouk of the Tunisian Internet Agency has chosen to play the other side of the fence. "The internet has many repercussions on the economy of the country and the country's image abroad. Thus, any process to block hurts its image," Chakchouk explained.

Student Lobna Sassi pointed out to Trabelsi that, "Shutting down these sites may be the beginning of going backward and returning to the rejection of control of the internet proclaimed with the demise of the former regime."

Meanwhile, Tunisia is struggling to bolster tourism, which is projected to see a fifty percent decline this year, observed David Miller of Arab News. Controversy over the country’s strategy to bolster the industry appeared in an advertising campaign displaying a pun and pictures evoking a negative image of Tunisia.

Miller goes on to explain that in one government-sponsored advertisement produced by ad agency Memac Ogilvy, a nude woman is getting a massage with the phrase, “They say that in Tunisia, some people receive heavy-handed treatment.” Another depicts Roman ruins with the caption, “They say Tunisia is nothing but ruins.”

Activists oppose the use of politics to garner tourists and conservatives take issue with the sexual connotation in the ads. Syrine Cherif, managing director of Memac Ogilvy, argued, “Our campaign represents the new Tunisia. The dictatorship is over now, and although the path to democracy is still long — we have set our eyes on our goal.”