TUNISIA: 31 SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR TERRORIST ATTACK

March 8, 2019:

Tunisia’s Criminal Court on terrorism cases in the capital’s Court of Appeal has sentenced 31 people to death over the 2014 terrorist attack on the house of former Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou, Aawsat reported on 7 March 2019. Among the 31 suspects are Seifallah Ben Hassine, known as Abu Ayyad, an associate of late al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and founder of the militant group Ansar al-Sharia. He is also the main suspect in a series of terrorist acts, including the assassination of Tunisian leftist Chokri Belaid and MP Mohamed el-Brahmi.
The 31 suspects, who include Algerians as well as Tunisians, were sentenced in absentia. Some of them are reportedly dead.
Algerian Khalid al-Shayeb, known as Luqman Abu Sakhr, was among them. He was allegedly killed in 2015 during armed clashes in the Gafsa region of southwestern Tunisia.