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Jihadists get life for deadly 2015 Tunisia attacks on tourists
TUNIS, Feb 9, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A Tunisian court has sentenced seven
jihadists to life in prison over attacks at a museum and on a beach in 2015
that killed 60 people, many of them British tourists, prosecutors said on
Saturday.
Dozens of defendants faced two separate trials over the closely linked
shootings, which occurred just months apart in Tunis and Sousse, but many
were acquitted.
Four were sentenced to life in prison for the shooting rampage at a Sousse
tourist resort in June 2015, which killed 38 people, mostly British tourists.
Five other defendants in the Sousse case were handed jail terms ranging
from six months to six years, while 17 were acquitted, prosecution spokesman
Sofiene Sliti said.
Three were given life sentences for the earlier attack in March 2015 at
the capital’s Bardo National Museum, in which two gunmen killed 21 foreign
tourists and a Tunisian security guard.
Others found guilty of links to the Bardo attack were sentenced to prison
terms ranging from one to 16 years, and a dozen defendants were acquitted,
Sliti said.
The prosecution will launch an appeal, he added.
The court heard that the two attacks, both claimed by the Islamic State
group (IS), were closely linked.
Several defendants pointed to the fugitive Chamseddine Sandi as mastermind
of both.
According to Tunisian media, Sandi was killed in a US air strike in
neighbouring Libya in February 2016, although there has been no confirmation.
– ‘Duty to IS’ –
Among those who were facing trial were six security personnel accused of
failing to provide assistance to people in danger during the Sousse attack.
MORE/MR/ 1454 hrs
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That shooting was carried out by Seifeddine Rezgui, who opened fire on a
beach before rampaging into a high-end hotel, where he continued to fire a
kalashnikov and throw grenades until being shot dead by police.
Four French nationals, four Italians, three Japanese and two Spaniards
were among those killed in the Bardo attack, before the two gunmen, armed
with Kalashnikov assault rifles, were themselves shot dead.
Investigations showed one of the gunmen, Yassine Laabidi — who was born
in 1990 and was from a poor district near Tunis — had amphetamines in his
body.
His fellow attacker Jaber Khachnaoui, born in 1994 and from Tunisia’s
deprived Kasserine region, had travelled to Syria in December 2014 via Libya.
One suspect questioned in court, Tunis labourer Mahmoud Kechouri, said he
had helped plan the Bardo attack, including preparing mobile phones for
Sandi, a neighbour and longtime friend.
Kechouri, 33, said he was driven by a “duty to participate in the
emergence of the caliphate,” that IS supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed
in June 2014 across swathes of territory the jihadists controlled in Iraq and
neighbouring Syria.
Other defendants accused of helping prepare the attack said they had only
discussed ideas with friends. Several alleged they were tortured in
detention.
– ‘Finally recognised victims’ –
Victims’ family members in France and Belgium watched Friday’s hearing via
a live video feed.
“It was important for us to see, and especially to hear — to try to
understand the role” of each defendant, said one French survivor.
“Arriving at the end of the process will help us to turn the page, even if
we can never forget.”
Gerard Chemla, a lawyer for French victims, said the live feed had brought
some degree of comfort to relatives.
“The trial allowed them — by organising the video conferencing and giving
the floor to lawyers chosen by the victims — to finally be recognised as
victims by the Tunisian state,” he said.
But he lamented that the families of those killed had not been
compensated.
The Sousse attack, which killed 30 Britons, is also the subject of
proceedings in front of the Royal Courts of Justice in London, which is
seeking to establish what happened.
After holding inquests into the British deaths in January and February
2017, judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith concluded that the response of Tunisian
police was “at best shambolic, at worst cowardly”.
He said hotel guards were not armed and had no walkie-talkies.
There have been substantial improvements in security at Tunisian tourist
resorts since the massacre and in July 2017 Britain lifted its warning
against “all but essential travel” to the North African country.
The attacks and resulting travel warnings dealt a devastating blow to
Tunisia’s vital tourism sector from which it has taken time to recover.
Since a 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali,
jihadist attacks in Tunisia have killed dozens of members of the security
forces.
Thousands have also travelled abroad to join jihadist organisations in
Iraq and Syria, Libya, Mali and Yemen, according to the United Nations.
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