SALON

Saturday, Nov 17, 2012 12:00 PM UTC

2nd Tunisian detainee dies after hunger strike

By

Topics: From the Wires,

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — A second suspect in the attack on Tunisia’s U.S. embassy died Saturday after months on a hunger strike, his lawyer said.

Mohammed Bakhti, a prominent member of the ultraconservative Muslim Salafi movement, was admitted to intensive care days earlier following complications resulting from his two-monthlong hunger strike.

Fellow detainee, Bachir al-Gholi, died Thursday after a heart attack brought on by his own hunger strike.

The two men had proclaimed their innocence. Abdelbasset Ben Mbarek, their lawyer, accused authorities of responding too late to their grave condition.

Since the fall of Tunisia’s hardline secular dictatorship in January 2011, there has been a resurgence of conservative Islamic movements in this North African nation. Salafis have attacked art galleries and cultural institutes for perceived insults to Islam, culminating in the Sept. 14 assault on the U.S. embassy over an amateur film made in the U.S. attacking the Prophet Muhammad.

Security forces killed four people in the attack, the area around the U.S. embassy was damaged and an American school was gutted.

Some 425 suspects were rounded up in the aftermath of the attack, with 225 remaining in custody, according to Justice Minister Nourreddine Bhiri.

The minister, speaking at a news conference Friday, said he regretted the death of al-Gholi and deplored the use of hunger strikes as a protest. He said the death would be investigated.

The Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights has called for an independent investigation.

Bakhti was one of the most prominent Salafis in Tunisia and was involved in protests at Manouba University near Tunis over allowing female students to wear face veils. He was also close to the leader of Ansar al-Shariah, the group that is believed to have been behind the U.S. embassy attack.

More Bouazza Ben Bouazza.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations