TUNIS: Tunisian media on Tuesday slammed the failure to arrest the head of a Salafist group, wanted over Friday’s deadly unrest at the US embassy, the day after he preached a provocative sermon at a mosque in Tunis.
“Not only did he not hide, but he dared to mock the whole system,” said the Quotidien.
“Innocent or guilty, they could at least have arrested the suspect, if only to keep up appearances” of pursuing those responsible for the violent protests that left four people dead, the newspaper added.
Seif Allah Ibn Hussein, also known as Abu Iyadh, who heads the extremist Ansar Al-Sharia movement, preached at the Al-Fatah mosque in the center of the capital on Monday surrounded by his followers, and then left, despite a heavy security deployment around the building.
During his sermon, he accused the police of provoking the protesters who attacked the US embassy, and called for the resignation of Interior Minister Ali Latayedh, a member of the ruling Islamist party Ennahda.
Le Temps, another French-language daily, said the failure to arrest Abu Iyadh left him free to spread his “vindictive venom at the Al-Fatah mosque before he was warned and given time to escape.”
“It recalls the way in which (Osama) Bin Laden taunted the Americans for decades,” the paper added.
Interior ministry spokesman Khaled Tarrouche, quoted in the press, said the police did not move in to arrest the radical Islamist leader, “to avoid further confrontations with the Salafist groups present.”
Abu Iyadh’s arrest had been postponed to a later date, he added.
Four people were killed and dozens wounded when Friday’s demonstration outside the US embassy turned violent, with protesters hurling petrol bombs and storming the mission.
It took the security forces, who fired live rounds and tear gas in response, nearly three hours to bring the violence under control.
