TUNIS: Tunisian courts handed down prison sentences of up to 15 years to five defendants tied to a deadly May 2023 attack on a synagogue on the island of Djerba, one of their lawyers told AFP Monday.
The attack on the Ghriba synagogue left five people dead, not including the assailant, a National Guard officer, who was killed during the attack.
A student and the attacker’s fiancee, who were prosecuted for “complicity in homicide” and “membership in a terrorist group,” were sentenced to three and eight years in prison respectively, said Nizar Ayed, lawyer for several victims of the attack.
According to Ayed, the assailant acted “as a lone wolf.”
Two other defendants, whose exact roles were not disclosed, were sentenced to seven and 15 years’ imprisonment, with the heavier penalty given out because the defendant had fled justice, according to the lawyer.
The assailant’s sister, currently out on bail, was sentenced to one year in prison.
The defense for the accused will appeal, Mustapha Mlaouah, the fiancee’s lawyer, said.
On May 9, 2023, the attacker killed three of his colleagues as well as two Jewish worshippers, Aviel Haddad, a 30-year-old Tunisian, and his cousin Benjamin, a 42-year-old French national.
He shot dead one colleague while working at the island’s port and then drove to the synagogue, about 20 kilometers away, where hundreds of people were taking part in the third day of an annual Jewish pilgrimage.
There he killed the two Jewish men and wounded several officers providing security, two of whom died later from their wounds.
The student’s mother told AFP during a hearing that her family merely rented a studio to the assailant.
“I sometimes cooked for him and asked my son to take him food — our generosity backfired on us,” said Latifa Jlidi.
Before independence in 1956, Tunisia had more than 100,000 Jews, but the community has since dwindled to around 1,500 members, the great majority living in Djerba.
