Chokri Belaid
| Chokri Belaïd | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Native name | شكري بلعيد |
| Born |
26 November 1964 Djebel Jelloud, Tunis Governorate, Tunisia |
| Died | 6 February 2013 (aged 48) El Menzah, Tunis Governorate, Tunisia |
| Cause of death | Assassination (multiple gunshots) |
| Resting place |
Al Jallez 36°47′10″N 10°11′04″E / 36.78611°N 10.18444°ECoordinates: 36°47′10″N 10°11′04″E / 36.78611°N 10.18444°E |
| Nationality | Tunisian |
| Political party | Democratic Patriots' Movement |
| Spouse(s) | Basma Khalfaoui |
Chokri Belaïd (Arabic: شكري بلعيد Shukrī Bil‘īd; 26 November 1964 – 6 February 2013), also transliterated as Shokri Belaïd, was a Tunisian lawyer and politician who was an opposition leader with the left-secular Democratic Patriots' Movement. Belaïd was a vocal critic of the Ben Ali regime prior to the 2011 Tunisian revolution and of the then Islamist-led Tunisian government. On 6 February 2013, he was fatally shot outside his house in El Menzah, close to the Tunisian capital, Tunis. As a result of his assassination, Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali announced his plan to dissolve the existing national government and to form a temporary "national unity" government.
Belaïd was born in the town of Djebel Jelloud in Tunisia on 26 November 1964. He was a student activist in the 1980s. He worked as a lawyer and was also part of the defence team of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein during his trial for crimes against humanity. He spoke out against a 2008 clampdown on miners, and was a noted political critic of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the strongman Tunisian leader in office for 23 years, whose 2011 self-exile to Saudi Arabia was the first tangible result of the Arab Spring uprisings. Belaid was also a poet, and one of his poems is dedicated to Lebanese intellectual Hussein Muruwa, who was assassinated by Islamists in the late 1990s.
Belaid was married and had two daughters. The family lived in a rented apartment.
Belaïd was the coordinator of the far-left Democratic Patriots' Movement, which was part of a 12-member umbrella organisation called the Popular Front. He identified with pan-Arabism and was active opponent of normalizing relations with Israel. and was a strong critic of the supporters of fundamentalist Islam, sometimes referred to as Salafists, whose confrontational tactics since the change of government in 2011 have prevented some plays and music concerts from being held in Tunisian cities. The Salafists also have been blamed for attacking the US Embassy in Tunisia in 2012.
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