{"id":33471,"date":"2013-02-06T13:26:18","date_gmt":"2013-02-06T11:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/?p=33471"},"modified":"2013-02-06T13:26:18","modified_gmt":"2013-02-06T11:26:18","slug":"major-protests-in-tunisia-after-the-killing-of-the-leader-of-the-main-opposition-shokri-belaid-breaking-news-33471","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/major-protests-in-tunisia-after-the-killing-of-the-leader-of-the-main-opposition-shokri-belaid-breaking-news-33471\/","title":{"rendered":"Major protests in Tunisia after the killing of the leader of the main opposition Shokri Belaid \/ Breaking News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

Arab Spring is falling down\u00a0Tunisian opposition figure Shokri Belaid has been shot dead outside his home, prompting the over 1,000 Tunisians to protest in front of the Interior Ministry.<\/h1>\n

The streets are now packed, according to eyewitness accounts. Security forces cordoned off the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cProtesters are running around announcing that live ammunition has been used,\u201d tweeted @myriambenghazi<\/p>\n

Shokri Belaid had recently formed a coalition in opposition against the Islamist-led government, leading Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali to condemn the suspected politically-motivated assassination. Jebali labeled his death\u00a0\u201cthe assassination of the Tunisian revolution,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>adding that,\u00a0\u201cby killing him they wanted to silence his voice.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Belaid, who was leader of Tunisia\u2019s Democratic Patriotic Party, was killed as he was leaving his house in Tunis, the country\u2019s capital. He took four bullets to his head and chest. Belaid had reportedly received recent death threats, according to the Paris-based France 24 TV channel.\u00a0\u201cThree men in a black vehicle\u201d\u00a0<\/em>had been present at the scene, said France 24TV.<\/p>\n

Belaid has recently been speaking out against alleged attacks by the Islamists against the party\u2019s members, later stating that,\u00a0“a group of Ennahda mercenaries and Salafists attacked our activists.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0The attacks occurred as a party meeting drew to a close last Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A picture taken on December 29, 2010 shows Tunisian lawyer and human rights activist Choukri Belaid speaking as he attends a meeting along with other lawyers in Tunis to express their solidarity with the residents of Sidi Bouzid. Belaid, a senior leader in Tunisia's left-leaning opposition Democratic Patriots party, was shot dead on February 6, 2013 in the morning, his brother told<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two years ago Tunisia was the first country to overthrow its leader, following uprisings throughout the country, in what came to be known as the Arab Spring. The country has faced some social and religious uncertainty following the introduction of subsequent free elections, yet has managed a smooth transition to democracy up until this point.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arab Spring is falling down Tunisian opposition figure Shokri Belaid has been shot dead outside his home, prompting the over 1,000 Tunisians to protest in front of the Interior Ministry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":702,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,80,63,1,118,14],"tags":[16060,45306,77166,45304,45300,45302,45303,4435,45301,45299,45305,45307],"class_list":["post-33471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-breaking-news","category-daily","category-general","category-hot","category-world","tag-arab-spring","tag-arab-spring-falling-down","tag-breaking-news","tag-major-protests-tunisia","tag-shokri-belaid","tag-shokri-belaid-killing","tag-shokri-belaid-shoot-dead","tag-tunisia","tag-tunisia-main-opposition-leader","tag-tunisia-revolution","tag-tunisian-interior-ministry","tag-tunisians-protest-shokri-belaid-dead"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/702"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33471\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}