Tunisia sentences 31 people to death for attack on Minister

A Tunisian court has handed 31 people death sentences over a 2014 attack on the home of then interior minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou, a judiciary spokesman said on Monday. The 31, who included Algerians as well as Tunisians, were sentenced in absentia and some are reported to be already dead. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed the attack on the minister’s family home in the western border region of Kasserine, which left four police officers dead. Ben Jeddou was not in the house at the time.
Those convicted were found guilty of “wilful homicide and membership of a terrorist group” and were also sentenced to 36 years in prison. A total of 46 people were prosecuted over the attack, said the spokesman for Tunis district court, Sofiene Sliti.