Seven jailed for Tunisia terrorism

SEVEN terrorists have been sentenced to life in prison for their part in the terror attacks in Tunisia which saw a grandmother from Wales killed.

Thirty-eight people lost their lives when lone gunman Seifeddine Rezgui launched a killing spree on holidaymakers on a beach at the Imperial Marhaba Hotel near Sousse on June 26, 2015. He continued to spray bullets and throw grenades until he was shot dead by police.

Now Tunisian authorities have given seven other terrorists life jail terms and handed out other sentences for both the Sousse seaside massacre and a linked attack on a museum in Tunis in March of the same year, which killed 22 people.

Samir Ben Amor, a lawyer for one of the 44 defendants, said other defendants received jail terms ranging from 16 years to six months, while charges against 27 were dismissed.

Among those who lost their lives in the Sousse attack, claimed by the socalled Islamic State, was 51-year-old carer Trudy Jones of Blackwood .

The mother-of-four and grandmother-of-eight was due to return home a few days after the attack and had been on holiday with friends.

Speaking in 2016, Ms Jones’ son Gavin said: “We still haven’t come to terms with what happened.

“None of us have accepted it – we still feel like we’re waiting for her to come home.

“We feel so proud of her, especially when we see how much she meant to the residents at the care home.

“Being a carer was the natural job for her – she was always looking out for people and she put everyone before herself.”

Gas engineer Mathew James, 33, from Pontypridd, was shot three times while shielding his then fiancee Saera Wilson, whom he married in 2017.

The father-of-two was hit in his stomach and chest – missing vital organs by millimetres – but survived, although he has since had a number of operations on his leg and is still affected by his injuries.

Jessica Williams, 29, from Nantyglo, Blaenau Gwent, escaped uninjured but she also suffered, having witnessed the murderous attack by Rezgui.

In 2017, an inquest ruled that the 30 British victims of the Sousse attack were unlawfully killed.

But Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith rejected calls from lawyers for some of the victims’ relatives to rule “neglect” by travel firm TUI or the hotel owners. Trudy Jones was killed in the Tunisian beach terrorist attack