Tunisia’s former President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali has died in exile aged 83, his family says.

Ben Ali led the country for 23 years and was credited with delivering stability and some economic prosperity.

But he received widespread criticism for suppressing political freedoms and corruption. In 2011, he was forced from office following mass street protests.

His ousting triggered a wave of similar uprisings across the Arab world that became known as the Arab Spring.

At least half a dozen countries in the region saw their president fall or conflicts break out in the wake of the former Tunisian leader’s downfall.

Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia when he left office and was living there when he died on Thursday.

In 2012, he was sentenced to life in absentia over the killing of protesters in the revolution in 2011. A separate court also jailed him for 20 years for inciting violence and murder.

Ben Ali’s death comes just days after Tunisia held the second free presidential election since he was ousted.

It was brought forward after the death in July of the country’s first democratically elected president, Beji Caid Essebsi, who took office in 2014.

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