Tunis,(Reuters) – A second Tunisian Salafist held in custody since protesters ransacked the U.S. embassy in Tunis in September has died after a hunger strike, his lawyer and the Justice Ministry said on Saturday.
Muhammed Bakhti died in hospital on Saturday, two days after 26-year-old student Bechir Gholli. They were among dozens of Salafists, hardline Muslims, on hunger strike over prison conditions.
“It’s a shame that Tunisians die in prison after the revolution,” Bakhti’s lawyer, Anouar Aouled Ali, told Reuters.
Tunisia became the birthplace of the “Arab Spring” in January 2011 when protesters overthrew a long-established government and sent political shockwaves through the Arab world.
The attack on the U.S. embassy in September was triggered by an anti-Islam video made in the United States. Authorities arrested 144 people.