Prominent Tunisian opposition leader shot dead
By Samira Arabi
Morocco News Tribune
Agadir, Morocco — A leading Tunisian opposition politician was fatally shot outside his home on Wednesday, news agencies reported.
“Secretary-General of the Unified Democrat Patriots Party Chokri Belaid, 48, was shot dead on Wednesday morning in front of his house,” TAP news agency said.
“According to Mohamed Jmour, Chairman of the Party’s Central Committee, Chokri Belaid has been assassinated by four bullets at the head, heart, neck and shoulder,” the agency added.
Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, who cut short a visit to France on Wednesday, was reported to have told lawmakers at the European Parliament in Strasbourg as Aljazeera said: “We will continue to fight the enemies of the revolution.”
In his first reaction to the incident, Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, condemned the killing of Belaid and called it a “terrorist and criminal act” aimed at “Tunisia as a whole,” Jabali said in a statement to Radio Tataouine.
Rachid Ghannouchi, Nahda leader, denounced Belaid’s murder, saying the killers wanted a “bloodbath” in Tunisia.
“They want a bloodbath but they won’t succeed” in creating one, said Tunisia’s ruling Islamist party Rached Ghannouchi, whose party has been blamed for the murder, on Wednesday. “We can only condemn this cowardly act, which is aimed at (undermining) the revolution and the stability of Tunisia,” he told AFP.
Mr. Belaid, lawyer and human rights activist, was a fierce critic of Ennahda party, which leads the government in a coalition with two secular parties. He was also known as a prominent opposition leader in Tunisia since the rule of toppled President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
