Lotfi Ezzine (Jihadi Militant, Tunisia)

• Full name: Lotfi Ezzine
• Pseudonym: N/a
• Alternatives: N/a
• Location: Tunisia
• Affiliation: Partisans of Shari’a in Tunisia [AST]

Lotfi Ezzine (º1976) is a former technician of the state television station and a jihadi from the Tunisian governorate of Siliana. It is unclear how and when he became involved with militancy. Tunisian authorities accused him of having trained at militant camps in Afghanistan during the rule of the Taliban.¹ In 2004, Ezzine was arrested by Tunisian security forces and charged with membership of a terrorist organization. He was eventually sentenced to three years imprisonment. Ezzine was released in 2010.²

Ezzine joined the Partisans of Shari’a in Tunisia [AST; Ansar Achariaâ] following the 2011 Tunisian Revolution and became a senior operative of its covert military wing. In that capacity, he oversaw the shipping of huge amounts of weapons and explosives from Libya to militants in Tunisia.³ Ezzine was also involved in making preparations for the AST’s assassinations of left-wing politicians in 2013.⁴ He furthermore helped plan attacks against other prominent figures in the Sousse governorate.⁵ These plans were thwarted by the security forces in August 2013.⁶ Ezzine managed to escape arrest and went into hiding in the town of Goubellat, in the Béja governorate. Police eventually caught up with him and eliminated Ezzine during operations against AST hideouts in the town on Oct. 17, 2013.⁷