Slim Ben Hamidene

Slim Ben Hamidene, Minister of State and Land Property

Slim Ben Hamidene was born on 12 May, 1969 in the village of Mai in Djerba. His family that was persecuted under the Bourguiba Regime because of their support of Salah Ben Youssef, a Tunisian politician who opposed Habib Bourguiba during the 1950s.

In 1987 Ben Hamidene led the General Union of Tunisian Students (UGTE)  in the College of Law, Economics, and Political Sciences in Sousse.
He was pursued by security forces after the dismantlement of the student union by the Ben Ali’s regime. He was subsequently forced to flee Tunisia in September 1991.

Ben Hamidene went into exile in Libya and Sudan, where he stayed for six months before moving to Lebanon. He continued his studies in Lebanon at the College of Law in Beirut.

In 1993, a number of fabricated cases were levied against him in absentia because of his political activity.

Ben Hamidene faced persecution from Syrian Intelligence, and was arrested, tortured, and threatened with deportation to Tunisia.  Accordingly, he left Lebanon in 1994 for Europe to seek political asylum.

He entered France in 1995, and was granted political asylum in 1998. Ben Hamidene continued his studies Rene Descartes University in France, where he obtained a Diploma in International Economic Law and Development. He later received a PhD in Public Law regarding the subject of Islam and the State of Law.

In 2001 Ben Hamidene became one of the founding members of Congress for the Republic (CPR), and a member of the Executive Office of the International Organization of Tunisian Refugees.

He was later appointed as the Deputy Director of the UN Forum for Democracy and Development.

He returned to Tunisia on 23 January 2011 after 20 years of displacement.

Ben Hamidene is an activist in the Arab Society for the Defense of Human Rights.

He is currently a member of the Congress for the Republic Party as the head of the list of Mednine. He is the new Minister of State Properties.