Seven get life for deadly 2015 Tunisia terror attacks on tourists
Twin attacks in the country had killed 60 people, many of them British travelers
Tunisia retains the death penalty for terrorism offenses despite carrying out no executions since the 1990s.
The court heard that the two attacks, both claimed by Daesh, were closely linked.
Several defendants pointed to the fugitive Chamseddine Sandi as mastermind of both.
According to Tunisian media, Sandi was killed in a US airstrike in neighboring Libya in February 2016, although there has been no confirmation.
Among those who were facing trial were six security personnel accused of failing to provide assistance to people in danger during the Sousse attack.
That shooting was carried out by Seifeddine Rezgui, who opened fire on a beach before rampaging into a high-end hotel, where he continued to fire a Kalashnikov and throw grenades until being shot dead by police.
Four French nationals, four Italians, three Japanese and two Spaniards were among those killed in the Bardo attack, before the two gunmen, armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, were themselves shot dead.
Investigations showed one of the gunmen, Yassine Laabidi — who was born in 1990 and was from a poor district near Tunis — had amphetamines in his body.
His fellow attacker Jaber Khachnaoui, born in 1994 and from Tunisia’s deprived Kasserine region, had traveled to Syria in December 2014 via Libya.
One suspect questioned in court, Tunis laborer Mahmoud Kechouri, said he had helped plan the Bardo attack, including preparing mobile phones for Sandi, a neighbor and longtime friend.
Other defendants accused of helping prepare the attack said they had only discussed ideas with friends. Several alleged they were tortured in detention.
Survivors and relatives in France and Belgium, who watched the live feed of Friday’s hearing, said it had helped them to turn the page.
“It was important for us to see, and especially to hear — to try to understand the role” of each defendant, said one French survivor.
“Arriving at the end of the process will help us to turn the page, even if we can never forget.”
The Sousse attack, which killed 30 Britons, is also the subject of proceedings in front of the Royal Courts of Justice in London, which is seeking to establish what happened.
After holding inquests into the British deaths in January and February 2017, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith concluded that the response of Tunisian police was “at best shambolic, at worst cowardly.”
There have been significant improvements in security at Tunisian tourist resorts since the massacre and, in July 2017, Britain lifted its warning against “all but essential travel” to the North African country.
The attacks and resulting travel warnings dealt a devastating blow to Tunisia’s vital tourism sector from which it has taken time to recover.
Since a 2011 uprising that toppled Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, militant attacks in Tunisia have killed dozens of members of the security forces.
Thousands of Tunisians have also traveled abroad to join militant organizations, according to the UN.