Barely a day before Tunisia’s national dialogue quartet won the Nobel Peace Prize on October 9, an assassination attempt on MP Rida Sharaf Aldin reminded Tunisians of just how fragile their country’s stability is.

The attempt on Sharafuddin’s life – he remarkably survived a drive-by shooting on his car of some 30 bullets- was also a painful reminder of the 2013 assassinations of opposition politicians Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi, whose deaths threatened to derail the transition.

Barely a day before Tunisia’s national dialogue quartet won the Nobel Peace Prize on October 9, an assassination attempt on MP Rida Sharaf Aldin reminded Tunisians of just how fragile their country’s stability is.

The attempt on Sharafuddin’s life – he remarkably survived a drive-by shooting on his car of some 30 bullets- was also a painful reminder of the 2013 assassinations of opposition politicians Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi, whose deaths threatened to derail the transition.

While the attempted assassination on Sharafuddin did not come as a big shock to Tunisians, there is still a fear of  political violence tarnishing Tunisia’s successful legislative and presidential elections and the transition to an era of well-established institutions.

Politicians live with regular threats

It is not uncommon for Tunisian politicians and media professionals to receive assassination threats, whether directly or through social networks, which the Ministry of Interior (MoI) investigates. Media professionals Moez Ben Gharbia and Samir Elwafi say they have received serious death threats.  In such cases, the MoI offers extra protection. Gharbia, meanwhile, has fled to Switzerland to save his life and the lives of his family.

Political analyst Salahuddine Jourchi believes that the attempted assassination of Sharafuddin reveals that some parties not only target people, but also aim to deepen fear and uncertainty among all Tunisians in general and the elites in particular. He believes that these anonymous parties are influential, which enables them to move at the right time to target public figures with negative or positive impact on policy-making in Tunisia.

“The mastermind that has previously killed and committed terrorist crimes is the same one that has tried to assassinate businessman and MP Sharafuddin while on his way to his workplace and is the same one that continues to confuse the Tunisian society,” said Former Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali whose Ennahda Movement faced charges of covering up the previous assassinations. “This mastermind, I am afraid, aims to thwart the democratic experience in Tunisia.”

The Tunisian state spends at least four million dollars providing necessary security for people threatened with murder as well as their families. The security levels differ according to the degree of threats.

Security analyst Mazen Sharif says the attempted assassination of Sharafuddin has revealed a new facet of political assassinations, pointing that terrorism in Tunisia has grown to mafia-style terrorism which is more complicated.

Sharif argues that ideological terrorism is based on wrong understanding of religion and it depicts the target, such as security forces, the army and tourists, as tyrants where the culprit is a demagogic pawn, while Mafia terrorism is committed by genuine specialists directly linked to the Mafia, organized crime and intelligence.

Security expert Ali Zermedini says the latest attempted assassination and terrorism in general aim to spread fear and cause more chaos in the country and that terrorism targets elite figures.

He believes that the attempted assassination was committed by amateurs. Moreover, terrorist groups organized in clusters usually target people unprotected by security services.

The MoI receives increasing demands from politicians, public figures and media professionals to provide them with protection, while police unions are critical of the MoI because they believe it drains its efforts and time in providing protection for figures imagining to be targeted or desiring to attract media attention. These unions call for proper investigation about the validity of alleged threats.

Secretary General of the Republican Police Syndicate Habib Rachdi said in a media statement that many political and party figures cheatingly claimed that they received assassination threats to get security protection. However, security protection, says Rachdi, entails huge human, logistical and financial resources, which would disperse the security establishment’s efforts.