A professional footballer in Tunisia has died after setting himself alight earlier this week in what he called a protest against the “police state” ruling the country, his brother said Friday.
Nizar Issaoui, 35, suffered third-degree burns from his action in the village of Haffouz in the central region of Kairouan, his brother Ryad told AFP.
He was taken from hospital in Kairouan to the specialist burns hospital in the capital Tunis, but doctors were unable to save his life, the brother said.
“He died on Thursday and was buried yesterday (Friday).”
Issaoui’s protest recalled that of street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi, who burned himself to death on December 17, 2010, sparking the Tunisian revolution that was the trigger for the Arab Spring uprisings which toppled authoritarian regimes across the Middle East.
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