Tunisia Brahmi killing: 'Same gun used' in Belaid murder
A Salafist is one of the main suspects involved in the killing, Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou said.
Gunmen on a motorbike shot Mr Brahmi, who led the Movement of the People party, in his car on Thursday morning.
The governing Islamist Ennahda party has rejected accusations from relatives that it was complicit in the killing.
Mr Ben Jeddou addressed a news conference in the capital, Tunis, that was broadcast live on national television.
"This information surprised us, the weapon used, a 9mm semi-automatic weapon, was the same weapon used to assassinate the martyr Chokri Belaid, not the same type, the same weapon, the same item," he said.
Initial investigations pointed to Boubaker Hakim, a Salafist radical already being sought on suspicion of smuggling weapons from Libya, as the main suspect, he said.
Another man, Lutfi al-Zayn, was also mentioned as a suspect in the killing - both members of a 14-man group. Six other people were also being sought in connection with the assassination, it was announced.
Mr Ben Jeddou said extremists had benefited from the freedoms that flourished following Tunisia's revolution in 2011 in which long-term ruler Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was overthrown.
But following Mr Belaid's murder, the arrests of dozens of militants had foiled their attempts to set up bases, with possible al-Qaeda involvement, in the mountainous region along the border with Algeria, he said.
Most of the suspects in the assassination of Mr Belaid were members of the radical Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia, he said.
Gunmen on a motorbike shot Mr Brahmi, who led the Movement of the People party, in his car on Thursday morning.
The governing Islamist Ennahda party has rejected accusations from relatives that it was complicit in the killing.
Mr Ben Jeddou addressed a news conference in the capital, Tunis, that was broadcast live on national television.
"This information surprised us, the weapon used, a 9mm semi-automatic weapon, was the same weapon used to assassinate the martyr Chokri Belaid, not the same type, the same weapon, the same item," he said.
Initial investigations pointed to Boubaker Hakim, a Salafist radical already being sought on suspicion of smuggling weapons from Libya, as the main suspect, he said.
Another man, Lutfi al-Zayn, was also mentioned as a suspect in the killing - both members of a 14-man group. Six other people were also being sought in connection with the assassination, it was announced.
Mr Ben Jeddou said extremists had benefited from the freedoms that flourished following Tunisia's revolution in 2011 in which long-term ruler Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was overthrown.
But following Mr Belaid's murder, the arrests of dozens of militants had foiled their attempts to set up bases, with possible al-Qaeda involvement, in the mountainous region along the border with Algeria, he said.
Most of the suspects in the assassination of Mr Belaid were members of the radical Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia, he said.
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