Tunis Museum Attack Trial Reopens with Video Feed to Paris

The trial reopened Friday of suspects in the deadly March 2015 attack on the Tunisian capital's Bardo museum, with the hearing relayed by video feed to Paris for French victims' families.

Several of the suspects in the attack that left 22 dead testified as the trial started in earnest, after five previous sessions over the last 18 months that had been taken up by procedural issues.

Among the 19 defendants who appeared in court were the brother and friends of suspected mastermind Chamseddine Sandi, an AFP journalist said.

A security guard and 21 foreign tourists, including four French nationals, four Italians, three Japanese and two Spaniards, were gunned down in the March 18, 2015 attack by two assailants armed with Kalashnikov rifles.

Dozens of others were wounded in the assault on the North African country's main museum, while the two gunmen were shot dead. It was one of several attacks in Tunisia that have been claimed by the Islamic State group.

The first suspect questioned in court, Mahmoud Kechouri, a 33-year-old laborer from a working-class district of Tunis, said he had helped with planning for the attack, including readying mobile phones for Sandi, a neighbor and longtime friend.

At the request of victims' relatives, Tunisian judicial authorities allowed the hearing to be relayed to Paris with the accused only seen from behind, saving more than 60 civil plaintiffs from having to travel to Tunisia for the trial.

Since a 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, jihadist attacks in Tunisia have killed dozens of members of the security forces and foreign tourists.

Three months after the Bardo attack, 38 people were killed in a shooting rampage at the coastal tourist resort of Sousse.