Tunisia: Dozens Convicted over Teen Beheading

Local Editor

A Tunisian court convicted dozens of extremists over the 2015 murder of a teenage shepherd, but the vast majority remain on the run, a prosecution spokesman said Wednesday.

Mabrouk Soltani, 17, was beheaded as his sheep grazed on Mount Mghilla in central west Tunisia.

The details of the murder sparked outrage, with the victim's cousin forced to watch and carry his head to the family home.

A total of 49 people were convicted on Tuesday over the murder, including 45 in absentia, the prosecutor's spokesman Sofiene Sliti said.

Four were sentenced to death, one of whom is in custody, while the others were sentenced to between 15 and 36 years in prison.

Although no executions were carried out since 1991, Tunisian courts continue to issue death sentences.

Those convicted over Soltani's killing were prosecuted under Tunisia's 2015 anti-terror legislation.

The murder was claimed by the Tunisian branch of Daesh [the Arabic acronym for terrorist ‘ISIS/ISIL’ group], Jund al-Khilafa, in a video which showed the killing.

Two years later, Soltani's brother Khalifa was abducted and killed in the same area, in an attack also claimed by the terror group.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team