Berlin | Tuesday
TUNISIAN authorities have arrested a man linked to the explosion of a fuel tanker outside a synagogue there in which 16 people died, including 11 German tourists, German Interior Minister Otto Schily announced late on Monday.
Upon his return from a two-day visit to Tunisia to check on the enquiry into the blast, Schily told German television channel ZDF: ”There has been an arrest, but I think it is in the interests of the enquiry not to reveal any details”.
He added that enquiries were also continuing in other countries, including Canada, France and Pakistan.
The perpetrator of the deadly blast on the Tunisian island of Djerba on April 11, Nizar Ben Mohamed Nasr Nawar, died in the attack which also killed 11 German tourists, a French tourist, a French-Tunisian tour guide and two maintenance workers. ”A second person was involved in the blast,” said Schily.
The Tunisian authorities initially said the blast was an accident, while German officials insisted evidence pointed to a deliberate attack.
But Tunis said Monday that the explosion had been a premeditated attack by the truck driver, a Tunisian who lived in France.
”(This was) a premeditated crime perpetrated by a Tunisian, Nizar Ben Mohamed Nasr Nawar, with the aid of one of his relatives resident in Tunisia,” an official Tunisian communiqu said.
Investigations by judicial and security authorities revealed ”the home-made character of the products and means used in the attack” and confirmed that its suspected author resided abroad, the statement added.
On Sunday, Schily visited the Ghriba synagogue — one of Judaism’s holiest sites — and laid a wreath there.
He said investigators were trying to establish a link between the blast and extremist organisations such as the al-Qaida network of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden. The Tunisian authorities, in a statement Monday, announced that Nawar had acted ”in complicity with one of his close relatives living in Tunisia”.
Nawar’s name, identified by Tunisia for the first time, was the same as one mentioned when a group close to the al-Qaida terrorist network claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.
Last week, a London-based Arab newspaper said al-Qaida had claimed responsibility for the attack in response to ”Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people”.
Meanwhile French authorities in Lyon turned down an appeal against the expulsion of Nawar’s brother, Walid Nawar.
Walid Nawar (22) was found to be in France without the proper papers, but his lawyers argued that he faced serious risks if he were forced back to Tunisia.
The lawyers said they would appeal the court ruling. – AFP