The video purportedly showing the double murders of the Scandinavian tourists killed in Morocco “creates fear and anxiety,” said Norway’s prime minister.
Rabat – Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg has urged people to stop downloading and sharing a graphic video that purportedly shows the double murder of Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, from Denmark, and Maren Ueland, 28, of Norway.
In an interview with Norwegian news outlet VG, Solberg said that she hopes that people “will show support and compassion for the victims and their relatives by abstaining from spreading” the video.
She added that the video has been posted on her own Facebook page.
“We had to remove the video several times from my Facebook page,” she said.
Axl Wilhelm Due, communication adviser at Norway’s criminal investigation service , said that families and friends of the victims have received the video that allegedly shows the murder of one of the women.
While condemning the terror attack, Moroccan Government Spokesperson Mustapha El Khalfi said last week that people “know the law” and should not share the video.
VG also quoted experts who said that sharing the video is “an obvious violation of the Penal Code.”
The assistant attorney for Maren Ueland’s family, Ragnar Falck Paulsen said that he warned the family about the video. According to VG, the assistant said, “I told them they should not go on social media or watch television.”
Read Also: Norwegian Tourist Shared a Pro-Muslim Video 3 Years Before Her Murder
“I don’t understand that ordinary people can post such images on Facebook. It is unpleasant and completely incomprehensible.”
Morocco’s Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ) has arrested 18 suspects in connection to the crime.
BCIJ chief Abdelhak Khiame commented on the double murder in an interview with AFP, saying that the victims were stabbed, cut in the throat, and decapitated.
Khiame added that the suspects did not fit the profiles of terrorists because they were living normal lives.
He said that they have a low level of education and simple jobs, like informal small-business merchants. Khiame also acknowledged that the suspects were influenced by the self-styled “emir” of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Read Also: Suspects in Scandinavian Tourists’ Murder Pledge Allegiance to ISIS in Video
On Thursday, December 20, four of the arrested suspects appeared in a video posted online pledging allegiance to al-Baghdadi. Khiame, however, said that the suspects committed the crime without any coordination with ISIS.
