Tunis, Jan 9, 2019 – A Tunisian court has convicted dozens of jihadists 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. 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. The country has been under a state of emergency since November 2015, when an IS-claimed suicide bombing in Tunis killed 12 presidential guards.

Source: The North Africa Journal January 09, 2019 18:00 UTC