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Tunisia: Islamist party condemns slaying of priest

19 February 2011 23:54 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. The Tunisian government and a long-banned Islamist party both denounced Saturday the grisly slaying of a Catholic priest, while several hundred people gathered outside the French embassy in the capital to demand the recall of France’s new ambassador, APA reports quoting â€œAssociated Pressâ€.
The 34-year-old priest Marek Marius Rybinski was found on Friday with his throat slit and stab wounds in the parking lot of the religious school in the Tunis suburb of Manouma.
The slaying of the Polish priest was the first deadly attack on members of religious minorities since last month’s ouster of Tunisia’s longtime autocratic president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
The Interior Ministry said the killing appeared to be the work of a "group of extremist terrorist fascists," judging by the way it was carried out, and vowed that those responsible for the "odious crime" would be severely punished.
The long-outlawed Islamist Ennahdha, or Renaissance, party called on authorities to "cast light on the real circumstances of this incident ... before making accusations."
The statement, signed by the party’s leader Rached Ghannouchi â€” who returned to Tunisia last month after decades in exile in London â€” urged "vigilance in order to ward off anything that could spark anarchy in our country."
In a separate statement, the party also distanced itself from a recent anti-Semitic incident in front of Tunis’ Grand Synagogue, as well as small protests targeting bordellos and stores selling alcohol.
Ennahdha was considered an Islamic terrorist group and outlawed under Ben Ali, but is widely considered moderate by scholars.
Meanwhile, several hundred people gathered outside the French embassy in Tunis on Saturday, demanding that France recalls its new ambassador, Boris Boillon.
The protesters denounced what they called Boris Boillon’s "insulting behavior" at his introductory press conference last week, though it is not clear what exactly he said or did to anger them.
Some of the protesters complained that Boillon had a dismissive and arrogant tone during Thursday’s news conference, while others brandished signs reading "Tunisia: respect it or leave it."
Boillon arrived in Tunis last week to replace the previous French ambassador, Pierre Menat, who was recalled to Paris during the uprising after serving just over a year in the post.
Boillon, a 41-year-old Arabic speaker, is a former adviser to conservative French President Nicolas Sarkozy and was previously posted in Iraq.
Tunisia was once a French protectorate, and after the North African nation secured its independence in 1956, its leaders remained close to French authorities.
Some critics have complained that Sarkozy was slow to speak out in favor of the protesters during the uprising that sent Ben Ali into exile in Saudi Arabia on Jan. 14.