Tunisian opposition politician Moncef Marzouki, the leader of a small opposition party who returned to Tunisia from exile in France this week, attends a protest in Sidi Bouzid, the hometown of Mohamed Bouazizi January 19,2011. Bouazizi, a vegetable seller, set himself alight on December 17, igniting protests that forced ex-president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to flee Tunisia.
Street protesters in Tunisia kept up pressure for a government free of ties with the old guard while a prominent dissident said he would run for president to sweep the former leadership from power.
The country's interim leaders said they had freed the last of its political prisoners and promised a "complete break with the past" on Wednesday to appease the protesters who forced the strongman of 23 years, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, to flee to Saudi Arabia last week with some of his wealthy entourage.
State television said 33 of Ben Ali's clan had been arrested for crimes against the nation. It showed what it said was seized gold and jewelry. Switzerland froze Ben Ali's family assets.
Demonstrators, though less numerous than during the days of rage which unseated Ben Ali, continued to insist on the removal of all ministers from his once feared RCD party.
Only that, they said, could satisfy the hopes of their "Jasmine Revolution," which has delivered a shock to autocrats across the Arab world.
In Sidi Bouzid, the hardscrabble central Tunisian town where the revolt against Ben Ali erupted after a vegetable seller, insulted by police, set himself on fire, residents said the changes at the top had not gone far enough.
"Ben Ali's gang remains in the RDC and is trying to steal the revolution and the blood of the martyrs," said Lazhar Gharbi, a head teacher and unionist in the town.
"We want the dissolution of this party. This is the solution, and we want to hold its members responsible for their corruption," he told Reuters.
JOURNALIST SAYS TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT
Taoufik Ben Brik, a journalist who spent six months in jail over assault charges which his supporters, including international rights groups, said were trumped up to punish him for writing articles critical of Ben Ali, announced he would run for president.
"Ben Ali's departure was a moment of jubilation and joy for me. It was a big victory for freedom," Ben Brik said in an interview on Wednesday. "I opened the champagne to celebrate that moment."
But like many of Ben Ali's staunchest opponents, Ben Brik said he was not happy that many of the ministers in the new government have a background in the RCD.
"What I say is that the RCD should leave and I also say to these puppets of Ben Ali to go and join him in Saudi Arabia," he told Reuters.
Members of the interim leadership who held senior roles in the RCD have rushed to distance themselves from it. Interim President Fouad Mebazza and Prime Minister Mohamed al-Ghannouchi both quit the part on Tuesday.
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