At least 31 persons have been sentenced to death by a Tunisia court over an attack on the resident of the then interior minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou in 2014, a judiciary spokesman said on Monday.

The Associated Press gathered that the 31 accused persons – mainly Algerians and Tunisians – were sentenced in absentia with some reported to be already dead.

In 2014, militants of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb had claimed responsibility for the attack on the minister’s family home in the western border region of Kasserine, which left four police officers dead.

The minister was however not at home as at the time of the attack.

Those convicted were found guilty of “wilful homicide and membership of a terrorist group” and were also sentenced to 36 years in prison.

A total of 46 people were prosecuted over the attack, said the spokesman for Tunis district court, Sofiene Sliti.

Among the 15 remaining defendants, eight were sentenced to between three and 10 years in jail for “membership of a terrorist group” and “involvement in terrorism-related matters”.

The court, which issued the rulings on Friday, dismissed cases against the remaining seven, Sliti told AFP.

Among the 31 sentenced to death were Seifallah Ben Hassine, an associate of late Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and founder of the jihadist group Ansar al-Sharia.