The state prosecutor’s office said an autopsy found that Brahmi, whose family and political colleagues said would be buried as a “martyr” on Saturday, had been cut down by a hail of 14 bullets.
Balkis Brahmi, 19, one of his five children, said he was killed by two men in black on a motorbike.
“At around midday, we heard gunfire and my father crying with pain. We rushed out my brother, mother and I to find his body riddled with bullets at the wheel of his car parked in front of the house,” she told AFP.
As news of the killing spread, angry protesters took to the streets in both Tunis and Sidi Bouzid, Brahmi’s hometown.
Tunisian newspapers forecast a breakdown of stability.
“Violence is being turned into a system. By whom? By people determined to seize power or to stay in power,” Le Quotidien said, pointing the finger of blame at the government led by the moderate Islamist movement Ennahda.
According to analyst Sami Brahem, “the reasons behind the assassination of Chokri Belaid are the same as those which led to the murder of Mohamed Brahmi: to bring about the failure of the democratic transition.”
Belaid’s February 6 assassination, also outside his home, sparked a political crisis and charges of Ennahda involvement.
Beji Caid Essebsi, head of the main opposition party Nidaa Tounes, said Ennahda was to blame because it had failed to identify Belaid’s killers.
“There has not been any serious judicial action,” he told AFP.
The General Union of Tunisian Labour (UGTT) called Friday’s general strike in protest at “terrorism, violence and murders”.
Tunisia’s presidency told AFP Friday was being marked as a day of national mourning following the assassination.
Like after the Belaid murder, Ennahda was back in the firing line of accusations.
But Ennahda chief Rached Ghannouchi in a statement to AFP called the killing “a catastrophe for Tunisia”.
“Those behind this crime want to lead the country towards civil war and to disrupt the democratic transition.”
Political tension has been rising in Tunisia, with the launch of its own version of the Tamarod (rebellion) movement in Egypt that led to the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi on July 3.
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