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Tunisia officials accused of taking part in assassinating Al-Zawari

December 16, 2017 at 2:27 pm

People gather to offer their condolences in front of 49-year-old Tunisian engineer and drone expert Mohammad Al-Zawari’s house in Tunisia after he was assassinated [Houssem Zawari / Anadolu Agency]

Tunisian officials were complicit in the assassination of engineer Mohamed Al-Zawari at the hands of Israeli Mossad agents, his defence team has said.

Lawyer Hanan Al-Khomeeri told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed  that “senior” politicians, businessment and security agents were “complicit” in the assassination, adding that some security agents disclosed “important” information about the case.

She had been commissioned to take over the case by Al-Zawari’s family after the first defence team became an “obstacle” to revealing the facts surrounding the case.

Al-Khomeeri added that Al-Zawari’s widow, who is Syrian, has received repeated threats.

Another lawyer, Abdel Rauf Al-Iyadi added that “there are collaborators who are not interested in revealing the facts.”

He questioned why an Israeli journalist who had been in the country on 18 December 2016 was allowed to leave without being questioned.

Hamas: Inquiry confirms Israel’s Mossad assassinated drone engineer in Tunisia

Al-Iyadi said the journalist had been caught taking pictures of the headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior but was released without being questioned.

Interpol, he explained, did not cooperate with Tunisian authorities in this issue.

The lawyer estimates that there are around 300 undercover Mossad agents in Tunisia.

Al-Zawari was targeted outside his home in Sfax, Tunisia, in mid-December 2016.  The 49-year-old was an aviation engineer who worked on the development of unmanned aerial vehicles, drones, and was said to be working for the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.