The Criminal Chamber of the First Instance Court in Tunis began a remote trial on Friday, April 4, 2025, in a terrorism case involving Wannes al-Fekih but decided to delay the trial to a later date.
Al-Fekih had been on the run, and 29 arrest warrants had been issued against him for joining a terrorist organization and leading networks and sleeper cells to carry out terrorist operations. International arrest warrants were also issued for his involvement in several terrorist operations and plots, including the planning of the assassination of a former minister, which was uncovered in mid-October 2017.
Through a coordinated intelligence operation, the Ministry of the Interior was able to bring Wannes al-Fekih back, who had been hiding in Niger.
According to a statement issued by the Ministry of the Interior in 2017, Al-Fekih was connected to terrorist elements affiliated with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and was subject to 29 warrants for having joined a terrorist organization and exploited networks and sleeper cells to carry out assassinations and suicide attacks.
In 2007, he was convicted to four years in prison and five years of administrative surveillance after being cited by a participant in the Soliman operation.
He was released at the end of February 2011 after serving his sentence and later joined the illegal organization Ansar al-Sharia, where Abu Iyad appointed him as the leader of Salafism-jihadism in Tunisia.
During his interrogation by the investigating judge of the Judicial Counter-Terrorism Service, Al-Fekih revealed several pieces of information regarding weapons and sleeper cells not classified by security units, and he admitted to supervising training camps in Libya.