An inquest will conclude on Tuesday into the deaths of 30 Britons killed in a mass shooting in a Tunisian holiday resort in 2015, the biggest loss of British life to terrorism since the 2005 London bombings.
Hundreds of tourists were sunbathing when jihadi Seifeddine Rezgui opened fire with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, killing 38 tourists in total in a rampage that lasted about 30 minutes. Rezgui was shot dead by Tunisian authorities as he ran from the hotel.
The attack came three months after Islamist militants attacked the Bardo National Museum in the Tunisian capital city of Tunis. They killed 21 people – mostly European tourists – on the spot, and another victim died 10 days later.
The inquest, which opened at the Royal Courts of Justice in London seven weeks ago, heard emotional and graphic evidence from survivors and relatives of victims.
Tui – the travel company that owns Thomson holidays, through which all 30 of the Britons booked their trip – came under significant scrutiny over its handling of Foreign Office travel advice for Tunisia.
Lawyers for the families of 22 of the victims accused Tui of burying UK Foreign Office warnings about terrorism in Tunisia, while a number of survivors claimed they were pushed into taking holidays to the North African country. Others told the inquest they were reassured the country was “100% safe”.
Tui, which in the year to September made an underlying profit of €1bn (£866m), sold customers travel insurance that meant they were not covered if their trip was cancelled due to terrorism risks, the inquest heard.
Lawyers representing Tui presented evidence that showed where customers could access travel advice through its website. Representatives from Tui told the inquest that security was the responsibility of the local Tunisian authorities and not the tour operator.
The coroner, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith, suggested in closing submissions last Thursday that he intended to give a short-form conclusion of unlawful killing before delivering a factual narrative briefing.
Rezgui, from Gaâfour in north-west Tunisia, was a 23-year-old electrical engineering student at the University of Kairouan. It emerged he had received military training in Libya. Some of his associates went on to launch the Bardo Museum attack.
The ringleader behind the Sousse and Bardo attacks – and Rezgui’s recruiter – was identified as Chamseddine al-Sandi by a BBC Panorama investigation in January. Panorama said Sandi was believed to be on the run in Libya. The Guardian has not been able to verify his role.
Two weeks after the Sousse attack, the Foreign Office altered its travel advice to warn against all travel to four areas of Tunisia and against all but essential travel to the rest of the country. This advice remains in place.
Tourism in Tunisia, which had accounted for 8% in gross domestic product – a broad measure for the size of a country’s economy – has suffered considerably since the attacks. According to the Tunisian ministry of tourism, tourist receipts plunged 50% year-on-year in 2016, while the number of border arrivals was down 18%.
