Chokri Belaid, the opposition leader assassinated on February 6, 2013, left behind a legacy of advocating for the poor and the oppressed. His colleagues describe him as modest and intelligent with excellent political intuition and a brave person who never feared death.

Chokri Belaid, the opposition leader assassinated on February 6, 2013, left behind a legacy of advocating for the poor and the oppressed. His colleagues describe him as modest and intelligent with excellent political intuition and a brave person who never feared death.

“The Islamic Ennahda Movement’s demand for an end to what it calls injustice against a criminal clique implicated in political assassination is tantamount to a blatant scandal and an official green light for perpetrating assaults,” were Belaid’s last public words on the night before his assassination.  Ironically, on that same evening, he had denounced political violence.

Belaid was renowned for his unequivocal positions as well as his direct political discourse. He was also known for his “defiance” of salafists, the Ennahda party and its most prominent leaders, in particular the Interior Minister, Ali Laarayedh, and Ennahda leader, Rashid al-Ghannoushi. This disturbed Islamic parties and currents, especially Ennahda and its supporters; Belaid’s family has accused the latter of being responsible for this death.

Belaid was a vocal critic of the government and expressed his opinions through a smiling mouth hidden by a thick mustache that had long been the subject of amusing jests by social network browsers, including his supporters.

Belaid was jailed under Bourguiba and Ben Ali, and was one of the few lawyers who defended salafists – victims of Terrorism Act – and also youth involved in  the mining basin uprising (2008). In addition, he played an active role (within the lawyers circle) in support of the Tunisian revolution.

 Life of struggle

Belaid’s political struggle started when he was 16 when he joined the student movement at El-Wardia (the capital’s southern suburb) under President Habib Bourguiba, and then joined the movements of the General Union of Tunisian Students. His struggle and leadership tendencies were more clearly manifested through the student movement, where he was the official spokesperson of the Democratic Patriot’s Movement at the university. He later joined the legal sector, and defended oppressed and wronged people.

Belaid was born in Djebel Jelloud, south of Tunis, on November 26, 1964 and studied law in Iraq. He started working as a lawyer in Tunisia in 2004 and was known for his defense of prisoners of conscience under President Ben Ali. He defied the repressive machine, and did not discriminate between salafists, leftists and nationalists; he defended them all.

After the Tunisian revolution, Belaid joined the Supreme Commission for the Achievement of the Revolution Objective, Political Reform, and Democratic Transition. He also served as Secretary-General of the opposition National Democratic Movement, established after the revolution. Belaid was one of the most prominent leaders of the Popular Front, a 12-member umbrella organization which comprised nationalist, leftist, and secular parties and independent figures too.

Belaid was also famous for his tough TV interviews, vocal criticism of Ennahda, and consistent denunciation of violence targeting Ennahda opponents. He always supported the Arab causes, particularly the Palestinian issue.

On several occasions, Belaid was exposed to verbal assault. He also received death threats, and an imam reportedly declared his killing lawful. The interior minister personally held him responsible for inciting a number of strikes staged in many professional sectors and some governorates, including Siliana – northwestern Tunisia – last November.

Four bullets

At around 8:15 a.m. on February 6, the sound of four shots were heard. They were fired from a pistol held by a young assailant (according to witnesses), hitting Belaid in the head and chest and robbing Tunisia of one of its greatest men, who staunchly stood up in defense of the country’s gains.

Having said goodbye to his two daughters, Nayrouz and Nada, and his wife Basma Khalfawi, a lawyer, Belaid was heading to work as usual. He left his house in the neighborhood of El Menzah 6, in Greater Tunis, but it was his final farewell, for a treacherous hand was waiting for him.

Unprecedented assassination

Since its independence in 1956, Tunisia has not witnessed any assassination attempts, except for a single political one against President Bourguiba’s rival, Salah Ben Youssef, the second man in the Constitutional Party’s Political Bureau, in Switzerland in 1961. Under former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, a Tunisian journalist, working in the Arabic version of the French newspaper “Le Mond Diplomatique” faced a failed assassination attempt.

National funeral

“Rest in peace, my friend; sleep, O my beloved. May the eyes of the cowards never sleep.” With these words, Workers’ Party leader, Hamma Hammami, paid tribute to his comrade, with whom he shared anti-tyranny resistance from the 1980s. The funeral proceeded amid grief expressed by politicians and diplomatic envoys who wholeheartedly participated in bidding a final farewell to an unparalleled fighter.

About 1.4 million Tunisians hailing from across the country participated in the funeral. Geographic distance from the capital did not prevent mourners from holding symbolic funerals in tribute of Belaid. Even women took part in the funeral, defying the prevailing customs which do not allow them to accompany the dead to their final resting place.

Belaid’s coffin was carried on a military vehicle amid a lage number of mourners who accompanied him on foot in a journey lasting nearly three hours (although the distance does not exceed three kilometers). All the way to the burial place, the angry mourners kept crying out Belaid’s name, accusing Ennahda of being involved in his murder. He was buried in the Martyrs’ graveyard, at Jellaz cemetery in Tunis.

Belaid was murdered and put to rest, but his death has united the ranks of political adversaries and dissidents who have become convinced of the need to unite, abandon their political differences and stand up against the “killing machine,” which targeted their comrade, Belaid. No one knows who is next.