A French court will try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in his absence (one of the suspected September 11 attack planners) for his part in a 2002 bomb attack on the Shul in Tunisia that killed 21 people on April 11, 2002 – including two French nationals.

He is being held by US authorities in Guantanamo Bay and is expected to face a US trial.

A Paris judge issued a warrant for his arrest and he will be tried in his absence for “conspiracy to murder in association with a terrorist undertaking”, the justice source said.

The trial is expected within between six months and a year.

The bomber drove a tanker truck filled with cooking gas to the synagogue and blew it up as tourists were entering the building, which was virtually destroyed. A synagogue had stood on the site for 1,900 years.

TA