Ex-Tunisian dictator Ben Ali makes public appearance at daughter's wedding

The pictures were published in the Al-Mijhar newspaper and show the former autocrat, who ruled over Tunisia for 22 years with an iron grip, attending the engagement of his daughter Halima to a Libyan national.

Halima Ben Ali met her husband while studying at the Paris-Sorbonne University in Abu Dhabi, Al-Mijhar reported, adding that rumours of her engagement to a wealthy Gulf man in Dubai were untrue.

A source told the newspaper that the ceremony took place at the Ben Ali family home in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia with only close family present. The pictures show Ben Ali with his wife Leila Trabelsi and their children.

Ben Ali fled to Jeddah in 2011 with his second wife Leila Trabelis and children Mohamed and Halima after a wave of popular protests which inspired the Arab spring revolts that subsequently shook the region.

Since fleeing, they have been convicted in absentia in several cases by Tunisian courts, mostly for corruption.

Ben Ali was also sentenced to life imprisonment for the crackdown on demonstrations during the 2011 revolution, in which 338 people were killed.

Since the 2011 uprising, Tunisia has been held up by Western partners as a model of democracy for the region. 

Economic progress has lagged, though, and corruption remains a major problem in the North African state.