Beach massacre jihadis are jailed BY JOHN PATRICK KIERANS
Terrorists get life after three Irish among Tunisia victims
The end of the process will help us to turn the page, even if we can never forget
FRENCH SURVIVOR
YESTERDAY
FOUR jihadists have been caged for life for a Tunisian terrorist attack that killed three Irish tourists.
Lorna Carty, 54, from Co Meath, Laurence Hayes, 56, and his 55-year-old wife Martina from Athlone, Co Westmeath, were among 38 people who died in the beach atrocity in Sousse in 2015.
The shooter Seifeddine Rezgui opened fire on June 26 before going into a hotel, where he continued to spray bullets and throw grenades until he was shot dead by police.
Another three jihadists received the same life sentence for an attack on a museum in Tunis in March of the same year, which killed 22 people.
Dozens of defendants went on two separate trials over the shootings, which were closely linked, but many were acquitted.
Five other accused in the Sousse case were handed down sentences between six and 16 years in jail, while 17 were freed, prosecution spokesman Sofiene Sliti said.
Three of the accused were also sentenced to life for homicide for the attack at the capital’s Bardo Museum, where two gunmen killed 21 tourists and a Tunisian security guard.
The two gunmen who carried out the attack, Yassine Laabidi and Jaber Khachnaoui, were shot dead by police.
The Islamist terror group IS claimed responsibility for both massacres.
A number of defendants said the fugitive Chamseddine Sandi was the mastermind of the attacks.
He was reportedly killed in a US air strike in Libya in 2016, local media said, but this has not been confirmed.
Victims’ family members in France and Belgium watched the Sousse attack hearing via a video feed.
One French survivor said: “Arriving at the end of the process will help us to turn the page, even if we can never forget.”