Tunisia (AFP) - The Tunisian judiciary issued prison sentences of up to 15 years in the case of the attack on the Ghriba Synagogue on the island of Djerba in May 2023, which resulted in five deaths, according to what a lawyer told Agence France-Presse on Monday.
Published on: 02/16/2026 - 14:45
Two defendants, arrested and prosecuted on charges of “participating in murders” and “joining a terrorist group,” were sentenced to three years and eight years in prison, respectively, according to what lawyer Nizar Ayyad explained.
The two convicts are a student and the fiancee of the attacker.
Two other defendants, whose roles were not precisely determined, were sentenced to seven and fifteen years in prison. The second punishment is more severe because it was issued against a fugitive, according to the lawyer.
The attacker's sister, who was provisionally released, was sentenced to one year in prison.
On May 9, 2023, a member of the National Guard killed three of his companions, in addition to two Jewish visitors: Avil Haddad, a 30-year-old Tunisian, and his cousin Benjamin, a 42-year-old Frenchman.
In the details, he shot one of his companions and then headed in a four-wheel-drive vehicle to the Ghariba Synagogue, about 20 km away, where hundreds were participating in the third day of the annual Jewish Hajj.
In the vicinity of the synagogue, he opened fire on the guards who were providing protection, killing two other companions before he was killed.
Four visitors and five security personnel were also injured during the attack.
The defense team for the accused will appeal the rulings, according to Mustafa Mallouh, the lawyer for the attacker’s fiancée.
“Requests to claim civil rights were rejected, except for one request,” submitted by a member of the National Guard, according to Ayyad.
Ayyad explained that the attacker acted "as a lone wolf."
The Tunisian authorities had condemned the “criminal” attack, but avoided describing it as “terrorist” or giving it an anti-Semitic dimension.
The mother of the convicted student explained to AFP during one of the sessions that her family's role was limited to renting the attacker a house without knowing his belongings.
Latifa Al-Jalidi said, "I would sometimes prepare food for him and ask my son to deliver it to him. Our generosity turned against us."
Before independence in 1956, Tunisia included more than 100,000 Jews, and the number of people belonging to this religion decreased to about 1,500, most of whom lived in Djerba.
In 2002, the Ghriba Synagogue, the oldest in Africa, was subjected to a suicide truck bomb attack that left 21 dead.
© 2026 AFP
The content you want to browse is no longer in service or is currently unavailable.
