Tunisian prosecutors to appeal mild sentences to US embassy attackers

Tunisian prosecutors will appeal the mild suspended two-year term sentenced to 20 people for their involvement in an attack on the U.S. embassy last year, the justice minister said on Friday. Nadhir Ben Ammou said he understands Washington's "anger" considering the extent of damage caused to the embassy, while denying any U.S. interference in the appealing of the case as alleged by some people. On Tuesday, a court in the capital Tunis handed down the sentences to the 20 Islamists who were among some 180 involved in the assault last September, prompting the U.S. embassy to criticize the lenient penalty. The embassy said the Tunisian government had failed to show its opposition to the use of violence by the radical Islamists, on whom it often blamed waves of assaults that rocked the country since two years ago when the Arab turmoil started. Ben Ammou noted the U.S. statement was "a normal reaction" which would in no way affect the good relations between the two countries. Hundreds of Tunisian protesters attacked the U.S. embassy on Sept. 14, 2012, angered by an American-made movie mocking the Islamic Prophet Mohammed. The clashes left four assailants killed and dozens wounded as well as huge property damage to the embassy compound. While the government has held the radical Salafist group Ansar El Shariaa responsible for the attack, Ben Ammou said the fugitive leader of the group Abou Iyadh is wanted not for his role in the assault but for staging other terrorist activities.