Authorities Respond After Up to 15-Year Sentences in Synagogue Attack Case

Tunisian courts have handed down prison sentences of up to 15 years to five defendants connected to the deadly May 2023 attack on the Ghriba synagogue on the island of Djerba, one of their lawyers confirmed Monday. The ruling marks a significant legal response to an assault that shocked the nation and reverberated through its dwindling Jewish community.

The attack, carried out by a National Guard officer, left five people dead—not including the assailant, who was killed during the incident. On May 9, 2023, the attacker first killed three colleagues at the island’s port, then drove approximately 20 kilometers to the synagogue, where hundreds had gathered for the third day of an annual Jewish pilgrimage. There, he killed two Jewish worshippers and wounded several officers providing security, two of whom later died from their injuries.

The Sentences

Lawyer Nizar Ayed, representing several victims, detailed the outcomes:

• A student and the attacker’s fiancée, prosecuted for “complicity in homicide” and “membership in a terrorist group,” received sentences of three and eight years respectively.
• Two other defendants, whose specific roles were not disclosed, were sentenced to seven and 15 years. The harsher penalty applied to a defendant who had fled justice.
• The assailant’s sister, currently out on bail, was sentenced to one year in prison.

Ayed described the attacker as having acted “as a lone wolf.”

Appeals to Come

Mustapha Mlaouah, lawyer for the fiancée, confirmed that the defense would appeal the sentences. The legal process, already lengthy, will continue as higher courts review the case.

The student’s mother, Latifa Jlidi, offered a poignant account of how her family became entangled. Speaking during a hearing, she said her family merely rented a studio to the assailant. “I sometimes cooked for him and asked my son to take him food—our generosity backfired on us,” she said.

The Victims

The attack claimed the lives of Aviel Haddad, a 30-year-old Tunisian, and his cousin Benjamin, a 42-year-old French national—both Jewish worshippers gathered for pilgrimage. They died alongside the three officers killed at the port and the two who later succumbed to wounds sustained while protecting the synagogue.

For Tunisia’s Jewish community, already diminished from more than 100,000 before independence in 1956 to around 1,500 today—most living in Djerba—the attack was a devastating blow. The Ghriba synagogue, Africa’s oldest, has long been a symbol of Jewish presence in North Africa and a target of previous attacks.

What the Sentences Mean

The court’s ruling represents an effort to deliver justice for the victims and their families. The range of sentences—from one year to 15—reflects varying degrees of involvement, with the harshest penalty reserved for the defendant who compounded his alleged crimes by fleeing.

For the families of those killed, no sentence can restore what was lost. For Tunisia, the case tests the ability of its judicial system to address terrorism while navigating complex questions of complicity, intent, and punishment.

The appeals process will extend the legal journey. But for the Jewish community of Djerba, and for all Tunisians who watched the attack unfold, the memory of May 9, 2023, remains—a day when pilgrimage became tragedy, and a synagogue became a site of mourning.

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