Six Tunisian officers have been charged in a 2015 hotel massacre that left 38 people dead.
A Tunisian judge has charged the security guards with failing to come to the aid of tourists when a gunman opened fire at the Imperiale Marhaba hotel in Sousse, Tunisia, in June 2015, Reuters reported.
“The response by police was at best shambolic and at worst cowardly,” Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said at a hearing on Tuesday, according to The New York Times. “They had everything they required to confront the gunman, and could have been at the scene within minutes. The delay was deliberate and unjustifiable.”
The attacker was shot dead by security officers after killing 30 Britons and eight others at the beach resort, according to Reuters.
According to The New York Times, one of the security guards, who confronted the gunman, passed out from panic, and when he regained consciousness, he fled the scene.
Other security guards, who were also armed, reportedly sought reinforcement, despite being just around the corner from where the gunman was, at the time. They didn’t return to the scene until 30 minutes later, but by that time, all damage had been done, according to the Times.
The Tunisian government offered an apology for how its law enforcement acted during the attack.
The six officers charged will remain free until the probe is complete, Reuters noted.
Fourteen additional arrests were made amid the investigation, and investigators also have their eyes set on 12 others who are under suspicion.
The Tunisian gunman had reportedly trained at a jihadist camp in Libya prior to the attack.
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