Seven people have been given life sentences in Tunisia over two deadly attacks in 2015 that killed dozens of people. The attacks were a significant blow to Tunisia's tourism industry.
Image: AFP/Getty Images/F. Belaid
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A Tunisian court has sentenced seven jihadis to life in prison for attacks at a museum and beach in 2015 that killed 60 people, including dozens of tourists, prosecutors said Saturday.
Dozens of defendants faced two separate trials over the closely linked shootings, which occurred just months apart in the capital, Tunis, and Sousse, but many were acquitted.
Three were given life sentences for homicide over the first attack in March 2015 at the capital's Bardo Museum, in which two gunmen killed 21 foreign tourists and a Tunisian security guard.
Four French nationals, four Italians, three Japanese and two Spaniards were among those killed in the Bardo attack before the two gunmen were shot dead.
Other defendants were sentenced to between six and 16 years, said prosecution spokesman Sofiene Sliti. Prosecutors said they planned to launch appeals in both cases.
Among those facing trial were six security personnel who are accused of failing to help people in danger during the Sousse attack.
Tunisia stuck in post-revolution limbo
Faced with stalled reforms and widespread unemployment, Tunisians are left with an increasingly desperate situation at home. Have the post-revolution struggles been in vain? Benas Gerdziunas reports from Tunis.
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Dark silhouettes in Tunis' Souqs
From a time when ͞the walls had ears to post-revolution struggles seven years later, Tunisians are proud to have won their freedom of speech.
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Café Le Parlement
"Now, at least we can speak freely," proclaim Tunisians on the streets. Cafes, such as Le Parlement in Tunis, have become a forum for discussions and debates spurred on by the revolution.
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Bullet hole in Bardo
Bardo,Tunisia's National Museum, was the scene of one of the two terror attacks in 2015, which left 24 people dead and the country's crucial tourism economy in tatters.
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The scene of the attack
Twenty tourists were killed In Bardo, and another 38 in the resort town Sousse. Tunisia also has the highest number of "Islamic State" recruits, and has fought against an Islamist insurgency in the country's border regions.
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Post-revolution political assassinations
The murders of secularist politicians Mohamed Brahmi and Chokri Belaid shocked the country in 2013; Tunis routinely sees demonstrators calling for justice.
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Between football and apathy
Competing football club graffiti in Tunis suburbs. Some young Tunisians have pointed at the political apathy and disengagement, claiming that society focuses more on football rivalries than post-revolution politics.
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Fighting for women's rights
A landmark law, which came into effect in February, made violence against women a criminal offence. Wafa Fraouis has been involved in women's issues since she was 15-years old. She was a member of the committees drafting the post-revolution constitution, enshrining gender equality in Tunisia's future. She is now director of Beity, the only shelter for vulnerable women in Tunis.
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A tantalizing glimpse of a better life
For many Tunisians, the only option to escape creeping poverty is the dangerous journey to Europe. Over 6,000 Tunisians reached Italy's shores in 2017 alone; over a third came in the space of two months, the sharpest increase since the 2011 revolution.
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Discarded and forgotten
Inside a cafe, a group of men sit around plastic tables covered with coffee cups, as heaps of discarded cigarette butts pile underneath. "This is what unemployment looks like," says one of the regulars inside. At least three visitors in the small cafe have been deported from Italy.
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Escaping from their past
Marwan, a regular at this cafe, says many Tunisians leave to escape prison sentences, provide for their families back home, or cut links with the past completely. "We departed together with five boats; three made it to Lampedusa." He spent four years in northern Italy, dealing drugs and saving enough for a house and marriage back home.
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The final nail in the coffin
Hundreds of Tunisians who have tried to take the dangerous sea route across the Mediterranean have perished. Unmarked graves have popped up along Tunisia's coastline.
A number of the defendants pointed to the fugitive Chamseddine Sandi as the person behind both attacks.
Tunisian media have reported that Sandi was killed in a US air strike in neighboring Libya in February 2016, but there has been no official confirmation.
The Sousse shooting was carried out by Seifeddine Rezgui, who opened fire on a beach before storming a high-end hotel, where he continued to fire a Kalashnikov and throw grenades until he was shot dead by police.
Investigations into the Bardo attack showed one of the gunmen, Yassine Laabidi — who was born in 1990 and came from a poor district near Tunis — had amphetamines in his body at the time of the assault.
His fellow attacker Jaber Khachnaoui, born in 1994 and from Tunisia's deprived Kasserine region, had traveled to Syria in December 2014 via Libya.
The Sousse attack, which killed 30 British citizens, is also the subject of proceedings in front of the Royal Courts of Justice in London, which is attempting to determine what happened.
Since a 2011 uprising in Tunisia that toppled dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, dozens of security force personnel have been killed in jihadist attacks.
As well as leaving tens of people dead, the Bardo and Sousse attacks were a devastating hit, from which it has slowly started to recover, to Tunisia's vital tourism sector.
