THE GUARDIAN: Sakher el-Materi, son-in-law of deposed president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, attended lunch just months before uprisingThe government's special trade representative, Prince Andrew, entertained a leading member of the deposed Tunisian dictatorship at Buckingham Palace just three months before the regime collapsed, the Guardian has learned.
Sakher el-Materi, the 29-year-old son-in-law of Tunisia's deposed president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, attended a lunch given for him by the Duke of York. They were joined by more than a dozen executives from British multinationals hoping to win business in Tunisia. Materi has since fled the north African country and is under investigation for money laundering.
The meeting took place as part of the duke's government-appointed role to help broker deals for British businesses overseas, and its emergence will intensify calls for him to step down because of his contacts with controversial figures in the Middle East.
He met Colonel Gaddafi in Tripoli on government trade business in November 2008 and lunched with his cabinet chief, Bashir Saleh, in London in July 2009 after giving a seminar at St James's Palace for the dictator's £5bn Libya Africa Investment Portfolio, which Bashir chairs. >>> Robert Booth | Friday, March 04, 2011
THE GUARDIAN: Prince Andrew's relations with Tunisian dictator's son-in-law in spotlight: Andrew's role as government's special trade representative is controversial – but to some in government he is secret weapon >>> Robert Booth | Friday, March 04, 2011
