He established Al Adwya, one of Tunisia's biggest private pharmaceutical companies, with his brother Tahar El Materi in the 1970s.
[3] In 1930, his mother, Nefissa Ben Cheikh Ahmed (1911-1996), married his father, Hafiz El Materi (1890-1975), who was a young widower with three children (Fatma, Khiareddine, and Slim).
[2] In December, 1962, following his participation in the coup against President Habib Bourguiba, El Materi was arrested and sentenced to death on 18 January 1963.
He is currently a shareholder in equal shares with his brother, Tahar El Materi, the pharmaceutical company Al Adwya, which was founded in 1984.
[5] Subject to an international arrest warrant on August 26, 2011,[6] he was sentenced in absentia on February 7, 2012, to eight years in prison and a fine of 31 million dinars for having profited from the sale of declassified land after being ceded by the state.