In 1980, his family went into exile in Libya, as his father was an Arab nationalist opposed to President Habib Bourguiba, as well as to his successor Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

[6] The party run into controversy for mingling political and business interests, extensive campaigning and unclear financial resources.

[4][7] In August 2011, Riahi announced that he was planning to enter into Tunisia's media business with acquiring a 20-percent stake of the newspaper publisher Dar Assabah.

[10] Riahi is in self-imposed exile in the United Arab Emirates following the issuing of a five year jail sentence against him for issuing checks without balance, as well as corruption related to his leading the Tunisian sports club Club Africain.,[11] On 16 October 2017 the Tunisian court decided to drop the verdicts against businessman Salim Riahi in the case of checks without balance.

Al Riahi attended accompanied by a statement stating that he had cleared the checks, after objecting to a 5-year prison sentence.