The Court of First Instance in Tunis sentenced a Tunisian to 10 years in prison and his wife for six months. The two are accused of joining a terrorist group, planning to smuggle terrorist elements to the country, plotting terrorist operations and concealing important information about counter-terrorism agencies.
Security investigation carried out by the anti-terrorism apparatuses revealed that the husband had been accused of contacting his brother, who is an ISIS affiliate.
The wife, however, hid the mobile phone belonging to her terrorist brother-in-law who is currently in the hotbeds of tension in Syria.
Security units considered this an attempt to mislead the judiciary and not enable anti-terrorism agencies to access information and important data in the ISIS element’s mobile phone.
The wife confirmed that he contacts them on a regular basis and he talks to her husband and his mother. Yet, she said she was afraid to reveal her husband’s contacts with his terrorist brother and hid the mobile phone in a plastic bag before burying it near their house in Ramada (southeast Tunis).
In this context, the husband denied preparing and planning to carry out terrorist operations in the country and denied smuggling a terrorist group across the border to carry out bombings and killings within Tunisia’s territory.
He admitted, however, contacting his terrorist brother once, which the court considered sufficient evidence to issue a prison sentence against him.
The court said he had hidden clear evidence about his brother's joining of a terrorist organization, threatening the country’s security and stability.
Some 3,000 Tunisian terrorists have joined terrorist organizations abroad, according to official government data, with some 70 percent of them in Syria.
