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Tripoli, 14 April:
It is reported that the Tunisian justice ministry agreed today, Saturday, to transfer the trial of two Libyans accused . . .[restrict]of murdering two Tunisian officers last year from a military court to a civil one.
The two who were arrested on 15 May last year following a shootout between Tunisian troops and an armed group in the Tunisian town of Rouhia, 150 kilometres south west of Tunis. In the shootout, two senior officers were killed as were nine of the attackers. Two other officers severely wounded. Most of the attackers, however, managed to escape.
The Tunisian authorities have claimed the militants were members of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The two Libyans arrested were accused of being members of an AQIM cell in town of Tatouine that was linked to the attack. It was reported at the time that they were arrested that they were in possession of an explosives belt and bombs .
The military prosecutor was demanding the death sentence for the two men.
The Libyan NGO campaigning for Libyan prisoners abroad had appealed to both Tunisia’s president and its justice ministry on behalf of the two saying that they were not members of AQIM.
According to the NGO’s spokesman, Taha Shakshuki, the group were informed today that the men would be transferred to a civil court.
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