Rabat – Norwegian police have issued a statement about the video that shows the murder of two Scandinavian tourists near Mount Toubkal, a Norwegian source told Morocco World News.
In the statement, police said that “they have no reason to believe the video of the killing is not real.”
Police also concluded that four men who appeared in a second video pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi are the same men who have been arrested as suspects in the murder. Police also revealed that the video was shot last week.
Read Also: BCIJ Investigates Video Where Tourists Murder Suspects Pledge Allegiance to ISIS
Authorities arrested four suspects for their alleged involvement in killing two women from Denmark and Norway who were camping 10 kilometers from Imlil, a village in the Atlas Mountains widely known for hiking and camping.
The first suspect was arrested on Tuesday, December 18, and three more arrests followed on Thursday, December 20.
According to Morocco’s Central Bureau of Judicial Intelligence (BCIJ), the three suspects arrested on Thursday were trying to escape Marrakech, the nearest large city to Imlil, by bus.
Stories on the arrest have been going viral. Some internet users claimed that someone who was selling water near a bus station in Marrakech encountered the suspects when one bought a water bottle. The seller saw a knife in the suspect’s suitcase and immediately called the police.
Read Also: Suspects in Scandinavian Tourists’ Murder Pledge Allegiance to ISIS in Video
Authorities released photos of the three suspects when they were caught on a bus to Agadir. The three suspects appear, along with one other individual, in the video pledging allegiance to ISIS.
The video shows a blonde girl screaming as a man starts slicing her neck. While the armed attacker decapitates the woman, another man filming the crime stops the victim from moving with his foot.
In the 72-second video, one of the men was heard saying “This is revenge for our brothers in Hajin.” The suspect was referring to a small town in eastern Syria that was ISIS’ last holdout.
On Thursday, after the arrest of the four suspects, an anonymous Twitter user posted videos of the four suspects pledging allegiance to ISIS’ leader.
BCIJ is still investigating the videos’ authenticity.
