Four sentenced to death for killing Tunisian opposition leader Belaid

Four sentenced to death for killing Tunisian opposition leader Belaid

A total of 23 people had been in charged in connection with the murder of Belaid in 2013.
Tunisian opposition politician Chokri Belaid was shot dead in Tunis in 2013. Photo: Reuters

Four people have been 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 on Wednesday.

A total of 23 people had been in charged in connection with the murder of Belaid, a fierce critic of the then ruling party Ennahdha in his car outside his home.

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

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

Terrorists with allegiance to Daesh 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 Ennahda, the party that dominated Tunisian politics with a parliament majority for a decade following the 2011 Tunisian uprising.

The party's political influence was cut short in July 2021, when President Kais Saied took over.

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TRT Afrika and agencies