The Criminal Chamber of the Tunis Court of Appeal increased on Tuesday, May 27, the sentences pronounced against 20 accused in the so -called “attack on the American embassy”, bringing the prison sentence to 8 years and 3 months and raising the suspended sentence for all condemned.
This was said, this Friday, court spokesperson Habib Torkhani said at the TAP agency. The same source recalled that the judgment at first instance had sentenced the accused to two years in suspended prison.
The facts date back to September 14, 2012, when hundreds of demonstrators, mostly belonging to the Salafist and Protestant against a film deemed offensive towards religion, went to the US embassy and school, located at the banks of the lake in Tunis.
Part of the buildings were vandalized and several vehicles belonging to employees of the embassy were burnt down. Four young people died during this attack on the American diplomatic enclosure.
Following this attack, the United States claimed from Tunisia compensation of 12,882,927 dollars for the damage caused to their embassy and 5,494,888 dollars for the damage suffered by the American school.