A 35-year-old professional footballer in Tunisia, Nizar Issaoui has died after setting himself ablaze in a protest against the police for labelling him a terrorist following a dispute over bananas, his brother, Ryad, told journalists on Friday.
Issaoui, who set himself alight on Wednesday in the village of Haffouz in the central region of Kairouan, suffered third-degree burns and died in the hospital the following day, according to Ryad.
“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.
Before setting himself on fire, Issaoui had posted on Facebook that he had sentenced himself to “death by fire“.
“I have no more energy. Let the police state know that the sentence will be executed today,” he wrote.
Issaoui was said to have decided on the extreme protest after police officers accused him of “terrorism” when he complained that he was unable to buy bananas for less than 10 dinars ($3.30) a kilogramme, double the price set by the government.
“For a dispute with someone selling bananas at 10 dinars, I get accused of terrorism at the police station. Terrorism for a complaint about bananas,” he reportedly wrote on social media.
The incident which has been widely reported by the Tunisian media, is coming 13 years after a street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi burned himself to death on December 17, 2010, an action that sparked a revolution in the country, triggering the famous Arab Spring which toppled some authoritarian regimes across North Africa and the Middle East.
Issaoui’s death also sparked protests on the streets of Haffouz on Thursday evening, as young demonstrators hurled stones at police who responded with tear gas, the media reported.
The late Issaoui was a free agent at the time of his death, after a career that saw him play for a range of clubs from the lower divisions to the top flight in the country’s league.