Tunisians protest against Saudi Crown Prince’s visit

HUNDREDS of Tunisians protested against a visit by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince yesterday, denouncing the top Saudi royal as a murderer in the second-consecutive day of demonstrations condemning the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, heir to the throne of the world’s top oil exporter, departed from Cairo yesterday and was expected in Tunis by late afternoon.

He is on a tour of Arab states that has also taken him to Bahrain and the UAE.

The killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and a critic of the prince, at Riyadh’s consulate in Istanbul six weeks ago has strained Saudi Arabia’s ties with the West and battered Prince Mohammed’s image.

Saudi Arabia has said the prince had no knowledge of the murder at the time. After offering contradictory explanations, Riyadh said last month that Khashoggi had been killed and his body dismembered when negotiations to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia failed.

Hundreds of protesters marched through the central Habib Bourguiba avenue in Tunis, scene of the mass protests that toppled Ben Ali in 2011.

They chanted “the murderer is not welcome in Tunisia” and “shame on Tunisia’s rulers” for receiving Bin Salman. Journalists put up a huge banner at their union, showing the prince with a saw, which Turkish sources have said was used to dismember Khashoggi.

Tunisian rights activists and journalists staged a smaller protest on Monday.

Last week, Nourredine Ben Ticha, the adviser to Tunisia’s President Beji Caid Essebsi, said the truth about the murder needed to be established but the incident should not be used to harm the kingdom’s stability.

Tunisia and Saudi Arabia have different political systems. The kingdom is an absolute monarchy while Tunisia has undergone a democratic transition since 2011.

Tunisia agreed, in 2014, on a constitution guaranteeing fundamental rights such as freedom of speech.