DUBAI, February 10 (RIA Novosti) – Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki's secular party withdrew its three ministers from the Islamist-led government on Sunday, saying its demands for the cabinet reshuffle have not been met.
"We have been saying for a week that if the foreign and justice ministers were not changed, we would withdraw from the government," Al Arabiya quoted Samir Ben Amor, a Congress for the Republic Party official, as saying.
He said the decision is not linked the plans voiced by Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali to form an independent Cabinet of experts in an effort to solve the political crisis, which was sparked by last week’s assassination of a prominent secular opposition leader Shokri Belaid.
Belaid, an outspoken critic of the post-revolution coalition government led by the Islamist Ennahda party, was shot dead in broad daylight near his Tunis home on February 6.
Belaid's family has accused the ruling Ennahda party of responsibility for his assassination. The Islamist party has denied any complicity in the killing.
Thousands gathered for Belaid’s funeral on Friday amid a nationwide general strike called by his trade union supporters.
The Ennahda party pushed its supporters to stage a pro-government rally on Saturday in response to a wave of mass anti-government protests in Tunisia provoked by Belaid’s killing.
