Tunis: A Tunisian Salafist held in custody after protesters ransacked the US embassy in Tunis in September died on Thursday after nearly two months on hunger strike, his lawyer said.
Bashir Golli, 26, had been one of dozens of Salafists who had begun a hunger strike over prison conditions. They were among 144 people arrested over the protests on September 14, triggered by an anti-Islam video made in the United States.
“Bashir Golli, a student on hunger strike for 57 days in custody, was transferred to the hospital and he died today,” his lawyer Anouar Aouled Ali told Reuters. Another Salafist, Mohammad Bakthi, was in hospital in critical condition.
Justice ministry officials declined immediate comment.
A Tunisian court last month sentenced Abou Ayub, a leader in the radical Islamist group Ansar Al Sharia, to one year in prison for inciting the attack in which four Tunisians were killed.
The attack on the embassy - which was not staffed at the time - followed one on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans, including US ambassador Chris Stephens, were killed.
Tension has been growing between Islamists and secularists in Tunisia since the Islamist Al Nahda Movement won an election last year