The Tunisian president has revoked Suha Arafat’s Tunisian citizenship following rumors of an affair with the president’s married brother-in-law, and business disputes with her Tunisian partners.

Suha Arafat is the widow of former PLO leader Yasser Arafat. She is said to have fled to Malta in recent days.

Yasser Arafat was worth almost a billion dollars at the time of his death, thanks to European donations to the Palestinian Authority which he pocketed and various other criminal and terrorist activities he engaged in. Suha has kept much of the money.

According to the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali withdrew Suha Arafat’s naturalized status in a special decree last week, after it was found out that she was having an affair with the president’s married brother-in-law, Belhassen al-Trabulsi.

When Forbes originally placed Yasser Arafat on its rich list in 2003, it did so at $300m, but it then transpired that Arafat was worth over three times that amount.