Tunisian officials have arrested a man they say is responsible for the brutal death of a Polish priest outside Tunis late last week. Chokri Ben Mustafa Bel-Sadel el-Mestiri, 43, was taken into custody on Tuesday, February 22. Four days earlier, on February 18, the body of 34-year-old Father Marek Rybinski was discovered outside a Salesian-run missionary school in Manaouma, outside the capital city of Tunis. Rybinski was a Polish Salesian missionary priest. According to the Tunisian Ministry of Interior, the priest's murder was not a sign of increasing religious tension in the North African country. Tunisian Archbishop Lahham Marun Elias said Rybinski had given el-Mestiri, a construction worker, 2,000 dinars (U.S. $1,397) for construction on the missionary school in November. Rybinski confronted the worker when the work was not completed, and that is when he was killed, according to reports, which also say el-Mestiri has confessed to the murder. The Ministry of the Interior expressed “relief” that the priest's murder was not politically or religiously motivated. Originally, the Tunisian government suspected a “group of extremist terrorist fascists” to be responsible. Archbishop Elias had echoed the suspicion, telling Vatican Radio on February 19 that he believed “an Islamic movement” directed against “all non-Muslims” was gaining influence in Tunisia. A prominent but banned Islamic group in Tunisia, the Islamist Ennahdha (Renaissance), denounced Rybinski's murder and called for “vigilance in order to ward off anything that could spark anarchy in our country.” The group also called on Tunisian authorities to “cast light on the real circumstances of this incident… before making accusations.” Around 15,000 Tunisians took to the streets in Tunis over the weekend after news spread of the priest's death, chanting slogans of religious solidarity and secularism. Demonstrators chanted, “I'm Muslim, I'm secular, I'm Tunisian,” according to Polish radio. The demonstration was “an opportunity to correct the misconceptions that many people have about secularism. Most of the people think that secularism equals atheism, which is wrong. Secularism is for sure the biggest guarantee for freedom of belief,” Saida Garrache told Magharebia. Rybinski's death was the first deadly attack on a member of a religious minority since Tunisia's 23-year president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali fled the country following a month of demonstrations and protests across the nation. BM
