Court upholds jail term for Tunisia bomber's uncle
Source: Reuters
TUNIS, Dec 18 (Reuters) - A Tunisian appeal court upheld a 20-year jail sentence on Monday handed to the uncle of a suicide bomber for helping prepare his attack on a Jewish shrine that killed 21 people, court sources said. Fourteen Germans, five Tunisians and two French nationals were killed and 30 people wounded when the bomber drove a tanker filled with cooking gas into the synagogue and blew it up, virtually destroying the building. The 2002 bombing on the southern Tunisian island of Djerba, a popular tourist destination, was the first attack claimed by al Qaeda in an Arab country after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. Judge Chedli Boukriss upheld the sentence against Belgacem Nawar, 45, who was found guilty in June of helping prepare and carry out the bombing and of manufacturing and handling explosives, the sources said. Nawar had protested his innocence and defence lawyer Samir Ben Amor said he would take his case to the country's supreme court of appeal. "There are grave doubts over how this investigation was carried out and the proof against my client is very weak," he said.
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