A man set himself on fire inside the offices of Tunisia’s Islamist Ennahda party, setting the building on fire, injuring 18 other people, including two members of the party.
According to a statement posted on the party’s website, a “fighting member” was killed. He is a 51-year-old former janitor of Ennahda, who was found “charred”, as announced by the Ministry of Interior.
Local media reported that the victim was a supporter of the party and “set himself on fire on the ground floor” of the building where his offices are housed.
“He is another victim of poverty and marginalization (…) and the unjust media war against Ennahda and his members,” said Rashid Ghannussi, the movement’s leader. “Sami (s.s. the victim’s first name) spent ten years in prison for his activism against the dictatorship” but “ten years after the revolution (s.s. 2011), he had nothing, not even the slightest standard of decent living “, he added.
The movement’s vice-president, Ali Laard, who jumped from the second floor to escape the blaze, and Sura’s advisory committee chairman, Abdelkarim Harouni, were injured and taken to hospital, party members told AFP.
Laariad, the former Prime Minister of Tunisia, has many fractures.
Footage broadcast by local media and videos posted on social media sites shows heavy smoke rising from the Ennahda building, with officials and ordinary members trying to get out, with some jumping out of windows.
Ganousi, who is also the speaker of parliament, was not in office when the fire broke out.
The interior ministry said an investigation was under way into the cause of the fire and held it accountable.
Ennahda was the largest party in Tunisia’s parliament, which was ousted by President Kais Sayed last July. The party complained on Monday that it had launched a “defamation campaign” against him with the aim of excluding him from the political scene.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News
and be the first to know all the news
.
