Tunisia attacks: Militants jailed over 2015 terror

Seven jihadists have been sentenced to life in prison.

Seven jihadists have been sentenced to life in prison in Tunisia over attacks at a museum and a beach resort in 2015.
Sixty people, mostly tourists, died in the two attacks and many were wounded.

Some of the many defendants received lesser sentences and 27 were acquitted. Prosecutors plan to appeal.

The first attack, at the Bardo Museum in Tunis in March 2015 killed 22. Three months later, 38 tourists, most of them British, were shot dead at Port El Kantaoui, near Sousse.

The so-called Islamic State group said it had carried out the attacks.

The man believed to have planned both, Chamseddine al-Sandi, remains at large. Unconfirmed reports suggested he may have died in a US air strike in February 2016 in Libya.

There were two separate trials. In the Sousse trial, four militants were given life sentences, while five others were sentenced to between six months and 16 years. In the Bardo trial, three defendants received life terms and a number of others were jailed for shorter periods. Ten were acquitted.

How the attacks unfolded

On 18 March, two gunmen in military uniforms stormed the National Bardo Museum, near the city’s parliament buildings, where anti-terrorism legislation was under discussion.

Twenty-two people, including 17 foreign tourists, were killed – 21 at the scene and one more 10 days later. Among the dead were citizens from Japan, Italy, Colombia, Australia, France, Poland and Spain.

Two Tunisians, one a police officer, were also killed. More than 40 people were injured. The attackers, Tunisian citizens Yassine Labidi and Saber Khachnaoui, were killed by police.

Three months later, on 26 June, a Tunisian electronics student, Seifeddine Rezgui, opened fire on tourists staying in the popular resort of Port El Kantaoui, just north of Sousse. -bbc.com