France is to try three suspects – one of them currently held in the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay – for a 2002 bomb attack on a Tunisian shul that left 21 dead, judicial officials said Tuesday.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is regarded by intelligence experts as the top planner behind al-Qaida’s attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, is one of three men accused of complicity in the Djerba suicide attack. He has been held in the U.S. military facility in Cuba since March 2003 and will be tried in his absence.

Two alleged accomplices – the bomber’s brother, Walid Nawar, and a German Islamic convert and al-Qaida’s alleged leader in Europe, Christian Ganczarski – have been in French custody since 2002 and will appear in court.

The trio are charged with “complicity in attempted murder in relation to a terrorist enterprise.” The trial will take place between Jan. 5 and Feb. 6 in the Paris court specializing in terrorism offenses, an official said.

On Apr. 11, 2002, suicide bomber Nizar Nawar detonated a fuel tanker rigged with explosives outside a historic shul on the Tunisian island of Djerba, killing 14 German tourists, five Tunisians and two French people.

Nawar is alleged to have contacted both Ganczarski and Sheikh Mohammed shortly before the attack. The bomber’s uncle, Belgacem Nawar, has been convicted in Tunisia of involvement in the attack and sentenced to 20 years.

(Source: EJP / AFP)