2nd Tunisian detainee dies after hunger strike

Mohammed Bakhti, a prominent member of the ultraconservative Muslim Salafi movement, was admitted to intensive care days earlier following complications resulting from his two-monthlong hunger strike.

Fellow detainee, Bachir al-Gholi, died Thursday after a heart attack brought on by his own hunger strike.

The two men had proclaimed their innocence. Abdelbasset Ben Mbarek, their lawyer, accused authorities of responding too late to their grave condition.

Since the fall of Tunisia's hardline secular dictatorship in January 2011, there has been a resurgence of conservative Islamic movements in this North African nation. Salafis have attacked art galleries and cultural institutes for perceived insults to Islam, culminating in the Sept. 14 assault on the U.S. embassy over an amateur film made in the U.S. attacking the Prophet Muhammad.