Prosecution hears Ghannouchi in Belaid trial

The public prosecution court in Tunis listened to the head of al-Nahda movement, Rashed al-Ghannouchi, on Wednesday, as a plaintiff in the assassination of Chokri Belaid trial. Al-Ghannouchi brought a case against the National Constituent Assembly’s representative Samir Taieb, when Taieb from al-Massar Party accused Ghannouchi of standing behind the mob and militia attacks on opposition parties that led to Belaid’s assassination. In February 2013, as Chokri Belaid was leaving for work, a man approached and fired at him at close range. Taken to a nearby clinic, he later died. Belaid, a fierce critic of the so-called “moderate” Islamist al-Nahda Party currently in power, was the general coordinator for the leftist Unified Democratic Patriotic Party and a leader of the Popular Front in Tunisia. The spokesperson of the Front, Hamma Hammami, accused the government of "tolerating violence." Speaking at a press conference, he insisted that the government is "responsible for Belaid’s assassination." Commenting on the murder on BBC Arabic, Abdul-Nasser Laouni, a comrade of Belaid, also accused al-Nahda of being behind the crime. Likewise, Belaid's wife and sister blamed their loved one’s death on the ruling party. Yet, senior members of al-Nahda condemned the assassination of Belaid and described it as a political crime. On the other hand, al-Nahda movement pledged to sue whoever accused the Islamic movement of being involved in the assassination.