Neighbour of murdered Tunisian opposition leader: “I heard four shots”

06/02/2013 / TUNISIA

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• Tunisia

The scene of the crime this morning.  Photo Bel Fekih Amine.

 

 by Rashida Adjani and Biodun Iginla, France24 and BBC News

The head of a Tunisian opposition party was shot dead this morning in Tunis. Bel Fekih Amine, a neighbour of his, lives right above the scene of the crime. He told us what he witnessed.

 

Chokri Belaid, the secretary-general of the Unified Democratic Nationalist Party, was shot as he left his house in the neighbourhood of El Menzah VI. His wife announced that he was hit by two bullets. His brother, meanwhile, immediately accused Ennahda, the Islamist party in power, of being responsible for Belaid’s murder. Tunisia’s prime minister Hamadi Jebali denounced this as an “act of terrorism” against the entire country, and promised to do everything in his power to find the culprits.

 

Belaid was a well-known opposition figure, who was quite critical of the current government. He had recently joined a coalition of left-leaning opposition parties, the Popular Front.

 

Over the past few months, several opposition parties as well as union leaders have accused pro-Islamist militias of orchestrating attacks against members of the opposition.

 

A few minutes after hearing the shots ring out, our Observer filmed the scene from his balcony. 

CONTRIBUTORS

Bel Fekih Amine

"His wife screamed: 'They killed him, they killed him'"

Bel Fekih Amine lives in the neighbourhood of El Menzah VI in Tunis.

 

 

I was eating breakfast this morning when I heard four shots ring out. I didn’t react right away because I didn’t realise they were gunshots. About five minutes later, I heard someone scream, “They killed him, they killed him.” It was his wife. I ran out to my balcony and saw his body lying on the ground.

 

By the time I starting filming, an ambulance had already arrived. Help arrived very quickly because there’s a firehouse just a few dozen metres down the road.

 

 

 

Police investigators at the scene of the crime.

Bel Fekih Amine