Tunisian opposition leader 'shot dead'
2013-02-06 14:01
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Tunis - Leading leftist opposition leader Chokri Belaid was
shot dead Wednesday morning as he left his home in Tunis, said his family,
which accused Tunisia's ruling Ennahda party of being behind the killing.
Belaid was head of the opposition Democratic Patriots party
and a harsh critic of Tunisia's Islamist-led government.
"My brother was assassinated. I am desperate and
depressed," Abdelmajid Belaid, brother of the dead leader, told AFP.
"I accuse ... [Ennahda leader] Rached Ghannouchi of
assassinating my brother," he said.
The wife of the opposition leader, speaking to Radio
Mosaique, said he had been hit by two bullets as he left his home.
Belaid's party was part of a coalition of parties which has
emerged in opposition to the Tunisia government.
The country is witnessing a rise in violence fed by political
and social discontent more than two years after the toppling of the former
dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Several opposition parties and trade unions have accused the
pro-Islamists of orchestrating clashes or attacks against them.
