Family of Tunisian Migrant Abdelkader Dhibi Receives His Body at Tunis-Carthage Airport
The family of Tunisian migrant Abdelkader Dhibi welcomed his body at Tunis-Carthage Airport on Friday evening, before transporting it to his hometown of Kasserine, where he will be buried on Sunday. In a statement to the press, the family of the deceased praised the position of Tunisia, expressed by President Kais Saied and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Migration, and Tunisians Abroad. This position firmly condemned the death of Abdelkader Dhibi, calling on French authorities to investigate the circumstances of the murder and take necessary measures to preserve the rights of the deceased and his family. The family, friends, and neighbors of the deceased, who came from the governorate of Kasserine and Tunis, gathered by the dozens at Tunis-Carthage Airport. They all denounced the murder of Abdelkader Dhibi, describing the manner in which he was killed as an "odious" and "racist" crime, and an "attack on human dignity" perpetrated by the French police and "members of the Algerian community" with whom the deceased lived and worked. The mother of the victim, Halima Messbah Ouanassi, wearing the Tunisian flag on her shoulders, told the TAP agency that she is still "in shock," expressing her gratitude to the President of the Republic for the interest he has shown in her son's case. The uncle of the deceased, Houssein Dhibi (78 years old), said he was deeply "moved" and "concerned" by the violence exerted by the French police against his nephew, recalling that Abdelkader had disagreed with his employer and members of the Algerian community after being fired from his apartment and expelled from his job. Abdelkader Dhibi died after being shot by several bullets fired by the French police last Tuesday, following a dispute in the center of Marseille. On Wednesday, the Secretary of State to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Migration, and Tunisians Abroad summoned the Chargé d'Affaires of the French Embassy in Tunis, in the absence of the Ambassador who was on a mission abroad, to express his "strong protest" against the murder committed by the French police, which he described as an "unjustified act." He asked him to transmit to the French authorities the official position of Tunisia, calling for a "serious and rapid" investigation to determine the responsibilities in this murder and "take the necessary measures to preserve the rights of the deceased and his family." Meanwhile, the President of the Republic instructed the Tunisian Ambassador to Paris to convey the same Tunisian position to the French authorities and take the necessary measures, in coordination with the Consulate General in Marseille, to accelerate the repatriation of the deceased's body to Tunisia as soon as possible. A collective of Tunisian lawyers announced that they would defend the deceased Abdelkader Dhibi before the French justice system.
