REPORT: Secular politician Brahmi was killed with same gun as Belaid - minister

Tunisia's interior minister said on Friday that secular opposition politician Mohamed Brahmi had been killed with the same gun that was used to kill his party leader Chokri Belaid six months ago, suggesting the involvement of the same hardline Salafist Islamist group.
   
Lotfi Ben Jeddou told a news conference: "The same 9mm automatic weapon that killed Belaid also killed Brahmi."
    He named the main suspect as hardline Salafist Boubacar Hakim, already being sought on suspicion of smuggling weapons from Libya.

This comes as shops and banks in Tunisia were closed and all flights cancelled as the country braced for more street violence a day after the assassination of an opposition politician.            
Mohamed Brahmi was shot dead on Thursday in the second such political killing this year, which prompted violent protests against the Islamist-led government in the capital and other cities and a strike call by the main trade union body.          

Tunisians were prepared for another difficult day after the secular opposition called for street rallies to topple the government led by the Islamist Ennahda Party. Islamists called for a demonstration after Friday prayers.                 

Brahmi belonged to the secular, Arab nationalist Popular Front party, whose then-leader, Chokri Belaid, was shot dead on February 6. Belaid's killing set off the worst violence in Tunisia since President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fell in 2011 in the first of the Arab Spring revolutions.              

Brahmi, 58, was a critic of the Ennahda-led ruling coalition and a member of the Constituent Assembly that has drafted a new constitution for the North African nation of 11 million.                
Shops and banks were shuttered in anticipation of violence on Friday. All flights were cancelled because of a strike called by the main labor organization, the civil aviation office said.             

Divisions between Islamists and their secular opponents have deepened since the popular uprising against Ben Ali, which unleashed unrest across the Arab world, unseating rulers in Egypt, Libya and Yemen, and leading to civil war in Syria.             

Brahmi's family said his funeral would take place on Saturday and he would be buried near the tomb of Belaid.              

Secularist called for the dissolution of the government and the formation of a national salvation administration, which was rejected by Prime Minister Ali Larayedh.             

In Tunis late on Thursday, riot police fired tear gas in front of the Interior Ministry to disperse protesters, a Reuters witness said.                 

In the international positions, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton condemned in the strongest terms the assassination of Brahmi, adding her voice to calls by U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch for an investigation into the killing.   
                           
The United States also condemned the "cowardly" assassination.                           


REUTERS/LBCI

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