Tunisian Radicals Get Life Sentences
TUNIS, Tunisia — A military court sentenced 11 Islamic radicals to life imprisonment Sunday for allegedly plotting to assassinate President Zine Abidine ben Ali and overthrow the government.
They were among 279 members or supporters of the banned fundamentalist group An Nahdha tried in the biggest legal proceeding in years against fundamentalists.
The government cracked down on An Nahdha in the spring of 1991, charging that the group was plotting to shoot down Ben Ali’s jet.
The U.S.-based human rights group Middle East Watch condemned Sunday’s verdicts, claiming complaints that fundamentalists were tortured were never seriously investigated.
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