"He has subsequently left the Seychelles," it said, without giving any details on where he went. Materi, who was convicted in absentia of corruption by a Tunisian court, fled to Qatar just before the overthrow of his father-in-law's regime in last year's uprising, but the Gulf emirate agreed to expel him in September.
On Friday, an adviser to the Tunisian justice minister said that Materi was arrested when he tried to enter the Seychelles with an expired diplomatic passport and that he was interrogated by police on the Indian Ocean archipelago. Tunisian Justice Minister Noureddine Bhiri then said that Tunis would do everything to get Materi extradited. "Sakhr El Materi went to the Seychelles after leaving Qatar. The Seychelles authorities opened an inquiry, because he was the subject of an international arrest warrant and because his passport had expired," Bhiri said. "The Tunisian authorities will do everything they can to get Sakhr El Materi extradited," he said.