Tunisia condemns 8 to death for presidential guard attack

TUNIS: A Tunisian court on Friday sentenced eight people to death in a trial for a 2015 attack on a presidential guard bus that killed 12.

The November 24, 2015 suicide bombing in the capital Tunis claimed by the Islamic State group (IS) killed a dozen presidential guards and wounded 20 more.

"The court issued the death sentence against eight people accused of participating in the attack against the presidential guards´ bus," deputy public prosecutor Mohsen Dali told AFP on Saturday. Two others were sentenced to 10 years and life imprisonment respectively, he said. The convicted were all found guilty of "voluntary murder and belonging to terrorist groups," Dali said, without providing details about their identities.

Only four of those convicted appeared in person at the trial, with the rest sentenced in absentia. Tunisia has imposed a moratorium on carrying out capital punishment since 1991. IS claimed two other major attacks in Tunisia in 2015.