Souguir won a BSIA National Security Officer Award all the way back in 2001 – the national award for customer service – when he was working as a store detective at retailer James Selby in Islington for CIS.
At the time, the awards judges said: “Abderrahman Souguir, of CIS Security, is the overall winner for his consistently impressive results as a store detective at the James Selby department store in Islington. Last year alone he made 329 arrests and recovered more than GB pound 20,000-worth of stolen goods. He carries out his duties in an exemplary manner, despite often being subjected to physical and verbal abuse by shoplifters. He has risked his own safety to arrest thieves and on two occasions has been slashed with a knife on his neck and hands.”
Here is how we originally reported the story.
According to Tunisian website Tixup.com, his recent television appearance was to “reveal secrets he may have had during his service with the presidency in Carthage”.
Training militias
The website reported that President Ben Ali and his team ordered the creation of militias to ensure the security of the president, his wife and their property. He also claimed he was told to train the militias in an abandoned hotel in Raoued.
Souguir said that illegal weapons were in circulation and that these, including M4 and Remington sniper weapons, were used to train the militias.
Tixup.com said Souguir claimed Ben Ali and his wife Leila Trabelsi had a child before they were married, and that Trabelsi had slapped the former President during an argument over his non-appointment of her brother Belhassen Trabelsi as a presidential advisor.
Tunisian protests
Souguir went to work for the royal family of a Gulf country, and later moved to London where he won his Customer Service award.
In 2004 he worked as a personal guard of the European Union ambassador to Afghanistan and took a job in Iraq as a security consultant and specialist in Middle East policy.
Souguir appeared on Nessma TV, which broadcasts to Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria Libya and Mauritania.
His appearance came in the wake of Tunisia’s January street protests which led to Zine El Abidine Ben Ali stepping down and fleeing the country. He had been widely criticised for suppressing political freedoms, and there had been accusations of corruption amongst Tunisia’s ruling elite. His wife, Leila Trabelsi, was criticised for reportedly amassing huge wealth for her extended family.
