7 get life in prison for Tunisia's 2015 terror attacks
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Imen Triqui, one of the defense lawyers talks to the Associated Press outside the Hall of Justice in Tunis, Friday, Feb.8, 2019. More than 40 people have been summoned to face trial over Tunisia's deadliest attack in a Mediterranean resort in 2015 and the verdict in expected Friday Feb.8, 2019, more than 3-1/2 years after the attack on the Imperial Hotel in the beach resort of Sousse left 38 people dead, mostly British tourists (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi)
A lawyer says Tunisian authorities have given seven suspects life in prison and handed out other sentences in the trial over two separate 2015 attacks in Tunisia that killed some 60 people, mainly tourists.
Samir Ben Amor, the lawyer for one of the 44 defendants, said the verdicts were handed down Saturday for the deadly attack against the country's famous Bardo Museum and a massacre at a popular seaside resort.
He says other defendants received jail terms ranging from 16 years to six months, while the charges against 27 of the suspects were dismissed. No one got the maximum penalty of capital punishment.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for the attacks, which, along with an attack on the Imperial Hotel, devastated the country's vital tourism sector and prompted foreign governments to issue travel warnings for Tunisia.