Brussels, 22/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - Catherine Ashton has expressed her “dismay” at the announcement of the murder of a Polish priest who was ministering to a Catholic community in Tunis and offers her condolences to his family. She says that Tunisia has traditionally been a land of religious tolerance and underlines the importance that this be preserved in order to build a fully democratic rule. “Freedom of religion or belief is a universal human right which needs to be protected everywhere and for everyone. Therefore I call upon the Tunisian authorities to continue to protect and safeguard the right of citizens to practise their religion freely”.
The Tunisian Human Rights League also expresses its “great consternation” and “condemns in the strongest terms this abominable crime which contrasts so markedly with the spirit of tolerance and respect for freedom of belief that the Tunisian people has always shown”. It “demands that a transparent investigation of the details of this crime be opened immediately and that anyone involved in organising or carrying out this act be arrested and tried”. The Tunisian government has condemned the murder and sent its condolences to the Bishop of Tunis. In response to this murder and to a demonstration a few days earlier outside the main synagogue in Tunis, a large demonstration was held in the capital on Saturday calling for “a secular Tunisia”. Ennahda, the main Islamist movement, “strongly condemns” the murder, seeing in it “an attempt to divert Tunisians from the aims of the revolution”. (F.B./transl.rt)