Protests erupt in Tunis after opposition leader shot dead
Angry protests erupted on Thursday in Sidi Bouzid, the birthplace of the Tunisian revolution, as thousands of people took to the streets, blocking roads and burning tyres, after the morning assassination of opposition leader Mohamed Brahmi.
By News WiresTunisian opposition politician Mohamed Brahmi was shot dead outside his home in Tunis on Thursday in the second such assassination this year, setting off mass protests against the Islamist-led government in the capital and elsewhere.
“He was shot in front of his house when he was
with his disabled daughter,” Mohamed Nabki, a member of Brahmi’s
secular, nationalist Popular Party, told Reuters. “The killers fled on a
motorbike.”
The assassination of another secular
politician, Chokri Belaid, on Feb. 6 ignited the worst violence in
Tunisia since the 2011 fall of autocratic President Zine al-Abidine Ben
Ali.
“This criminal gang has killed the free voice of
Brahmi,” his widow Mbarka Brahmi said, without specifying who she
thought was behind the shooting.
Brahmi was a vocal
critic of the ruling coalition led by the Islamist Ennahda party and a
member of the Constituent Assembly charged with drafting a new
constitution for the North African nation, which is split between
Islamists and their opponents.
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Thousands take to the streets after opposition leader gunned down in Tunisia
Published time: July 25, 2013 12:25
Edited time: July 26, 2013 04:52
Edited time: July 26, 2013 04:52
Tunisians gather outside the hospital in Ariana, on the outskirts of Tunis, after opposition figure and critic of Tunisia's ruling Islamists, Mohamed Brahmi was gunned down in front of his home, near the capital, on July 25, 2013 (AFP Photo)
Several Islamist party offices and government buildings have been set on fire. Police in Tunisia’s second-largest city of Sfax have fired teargas to disperse hundreds of protesters who stormed a local government office while demonstrators threw stones at them. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
President Moncef Marzouki, who leads a secular center-left party, has called for calm in the face of “plots against Tunisia’s national security”.
Tunisian opposition figure Mohamed Brahmi.(AFP Photo / Fethi Belaid)
Interviewed by local news station Mosaique FM, his pre-teen daughter said that her father "didn't want to leave the house" but then "received an urgent phone call and rushed out to his car", where he was mowed down.
Brahmi was declared dead upon arrival in hospital, with at least 11 bullet wounds.
"He died as a martyr to his opinion and position - he was killed by a terrorist gang," his wife told Mosaique FM, placing the blame at the hands of the ruling Islamist Ennahda party.
The wife and daughter of #brahmi are accusing #ennahda of the murder of their husband and father #tunisia pic.twitter.com/eeHnasRaRd"This is the biggest catastrophe that could happen in Tunisia. We have now had a series of political assassinations of anyone with a different, loud voice,” said fellow opposition deputy Najla Bourriel, a member of the Democratic Bloc, to local news portal Tunisia Live.
— Zied Mhirsi (@zizoo) July 25, 2013
Spontaneous protests broke out on an already charged day that officially marks the foundation of the republic, a significant date for secularists.
"Down with the rule of the Islamists!" the crowd chanted as it gathered outside key government buildings, the opposition headquarters, and the hospital to which Brahmi was taken.
Some demanded for Brahmi's body be brought out of the morgue and displayed in front of the crowd.
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