Tunisian Gets Life Sentence for Attempted Interior Ministry Infiltration

Police officers in downtown Tunis. Reuters
Police officers in downtown Tunis. Reuters
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Tunisian Gets Life Sentence for Attempted Interior Ministry Infiltration

Police officers in downtown Tunis. Reuters
Police officers in downtown Tunis. Reuters

The criminal chamber specialized in terrorist cases at the Tunis Court of First Instance handed down a life imprisonment sentence on Wednesday to an extremist involved in a 2021 attempt to break into the Tunisian Ministry of Interior, wielding a cleaver.

The convicted individual, in a fully conscious state according to the indictment, deliberately orchestrated the act of terrorism.

Hailing from a city along the Tunisian coast in the central east, the assailant, on the day of the incident, journeyed to the Tunisian capital in a vehicle belonging to a relative.

The vehicle was later abandoned near the "Al-Jalaz" cemetery, two kilometers away from the main street of Tunis.

The assailant then made an attempt to forcibly enter the Ministry of Interior headquarters, brandishing a cleaver at a security patrol responsible for guarding the premises.

Investigations conducted by counter-terrorism units indicated that the suspect spent some time in a local coffee shop before moving. At precisely 4:00 pm, armed with a cleaver, he tried to infiltrate the ministry but security forces shot him in the leg.

The assailant was transported to the hospital for treatment before being subsequently transferred to prison.

The life imprisonment verdict was handed down under Tunisia's Law on Counter-Terrorism enacted in 2015.



US Charges Iran Guards Captain in 2022 Killing of American in Iraq

Smog obscures the skyline in Tehran, Iran, 18 December 2024. (EPA)
Smog obscures the skyline in Tehran, Iran, 18 December 2024. (EPA)
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US Charges Iran Guards Captain in 2022 Killing of American in Iraq

Smog obscures the skyline in Tehran, Iran, 18 December 2024. (EPA)
Smog obscures the skyline in Tehran, Iran, 18 December 2024. (EPA)

The US Justice Department said on Friday it had charged a captain in Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards with murder and terrorism offenses in the 2022 death of American Stephen Troell in Iraq.

Mohammad Reza Nouri, 36, helped plan an attack on Troell, 45, who was working at an English language institute in central Baghdad, according to a complaint unsealed in US Federal Court in Manhattan.

The attack was carried out in retaliation for the US killing of the Revolutionary Guards' top commander Qassem Soleimani in a 2020 drone strike, according to the complaint.

"The Department of Justice will not tolerate terrorists and authoritarian regimes targeting and murdering Americans anywhere in the world," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

Nouri is already in custody in Iraq after being convicted, along with four Iraqis, in that country for Troell's murder. All five were sentenced to life in prison in Iraq last year.

Nouri is facing eight charges in US court, including murder of a US national and providing material support to terrorism resulting in death. The United States considers the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.

It was not yet clear if Nouri had an attorney. Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The complaint accuses Nouri of collecting personal information on Troell, whom he appears to have believed was an American or Israeli intelligence officer, and recruiting operatives to target him.

Troell was shot and killed on Nov. 7, 2022, after a heavily armed gunman forced him to stop while he was driving home with his wife, according to US authorities.