Four sentenced to death for 2013 murder of Tunisia opposition leader: justice official

Tunis, Tunisia – AFP

Four people were sentenced to death and two given life imprisonment over the assassination of Tunisian opposition leader Chokri Belaid in 2013, the deputy public prosecutor of the anti-terrorist judicial division said Wednesday.

A total of 23 people had been charged in connection with the murder of leftist Belaid.

Sentences ranging from two to 120 years were handed down to other defendants, while five were acquitted.

Belaid, a fierce critic of the then ruling Ennahdha, was killed on February 6, 2013, in his car outside his home.

Tunisia still hands down death sentences, often in terrorism cases, despite a de facto moratorium put into effect in 1991.

Islamic State claimed Belaid’s assassination as well as that of Mohamed Brahmi, another left-wing opposition figure, six months later.

Authorities said in 2014 that Kamel Gadhgadhi, the main perpetrator in the case of Belaid, had been killed in an anti-terrorist operation.

Belaid and Brahmi were both staunch critics of Ennahdha, the party that dominated Tunisian politics with a parliament majority for a decade following the 2011 Tunisian revolution.

The party’s political influence was cut short in July 2021, when President Kais Saied orchestrated a sweeping power grab.