Tunisian Footballer Dies After Setting Himself on Fire in Protest

• Tragedy has befallen the football community in Tunisia following the death of Nizar Issaoui
• The 35-year-old Issaoui lost his life as the result of injuries he suffered after setting himself on fire
• He is believed to have self-immolated protest against what he described as injustice by the police towards his family

Tunisian football player Nizar Issaoui has died from burns suffered after setting himself alight earlier this week as a protest against “police injustice”.

Issaoui, a former player for Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1 team US Monastir, posted a video on Facebook in which he stated that he was protesting against being falsely accused of terrorism. This occurred in the province of Kairouan in the North African state.

According to Al Jazeera - which quoted Issaoui's brother Ryad - the striker, who was a free agent and playing in amateur football before his death, suffered third-degree burns, with doctors unable able to save his life

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The Hindu reported that Issaoui decided to conduct his extreme protest outside a police station after officers accused him of terrorism when he complained about the price of bananas.

He said in a video doing the rounds on social media:

“For a dispute with someone selling bananas at 10 dinars ($3.29), I get accused of terrorism at the police station. Terrorism for a complaint about bananas.”

Protests led by the player’s family erupted outside their home in the town of Haffouz, with a large number of of protestors gathering in front of the police station where the incident took place.

Issaoui's action echoed back to a 2010 protest when street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight. This kicked off a wave of demonstrations that led to the overthrow of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali the following year, planting the seeds for the Arab Spring in 2011.