9/11 suspect on trial over Tunisian suicide bomb

Published on Monday 5 January 2009 21:05

THREE men, including one of the principal figures linked to the 9/11 attacks in New York, went on trial in Paris yesterday for their alleged role in a lorry bomb attack on a synagogue in Tunisia in 2002.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a Pakistani believed to be one of the planners of the attacks on New York and Washington, is suspected of organising the suicide attack in Djerba, in which 21 people died.

Currently held by US authorities in Guantanamo Bay, he is being tried in his absence, but his co-defendant, Christian Ganczarski, a German convert to Islam, did appear.

The third defendant, Walid Nouar, a Tunisian and brother of the Djerba suicide bomber, Nizir Nouar, also faces trial. All three deny involvement in the attacks and face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment if convicted.

The Djerba victims were killed when the bomber drove a tanker lorry filled with cooking gas to the synagogue and blew it up.