Cairo: Tunisian prosecutors have charged two provincial officials, one of them sacked last week after violent protests, with complicity in murder in a deadly demolition of a kiosk, state media reported today.
On Tuesday, protesters in the town of Sbeitta in Tunisia’s central province of Kasserine blocked streets and closed shops after a man died while sleeping inside an ulicensed kiosk demolished by local authorities.
An investigative judge in Kasserine Friday charged the driver of the bulldozer used in the demolition with premeditated murder and ordered him kept in custody, a legal spokesman said.
Pending investigations
The judge also pressed charges of complicity in murder against the head of the Sbeitta municipality and the chief of the regional security service. Both have been released pending investigations. The ex-chief of the Sbeitta police is, meanwhile, in remand in connection to the incident.
In the wake of the protests, Tunisian Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi decided to sack the governor of Kasserine, the mayor of Sbeitta, the chief of regional security and the local police head.
The kiosk, owned by the dead man’s son, was demolished as part of a municipal crackdown on illegal stores. The kiosk was closed when a municipal bulldozer removed it while the man was sleeping inside, witnesses said.
Tunisia has seen a series of social unrest amid economic woes since the 2011 popular uprising.
