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Rabat – Moroccan authorities arrested yesterday evening a man of dual Swiss and Spanish citizenship suspected to have strong connections to the terrorist squad which earlier this month perpetrated the death of two Scandinavian tourists.
While the Swiss-Spanish suspect was “not physically involved” in the murder that claimed the lives of the tourists, investigations have so far uncovered both his identity and his “terrorist past.”
Not of Moroccan descent
Born Zoller G.K to a Swiss father and Spanish mother, the suspect converted to Islam in 2011 in Geneva’s Grand Mosque. After conversion, Zoller picked Abdellah as his Muslim name. The name remained his nom de guerre as his conversion to his new religion was quickly followed by radicalization.
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Prior to moving to Morocco in 2015, Abellah had already earned himself Geneva’s radicalized circles. In 2014, at the peak of his radicalization phase in Geneva, he even attacked jewelry to “finance his jihad and donate the rest of his war booty to ISIS,” a group to which he is believed to have pledged allegiance.
According to Moroccan outlet Le 360, Abdellah was fully radicalized by 2014, a year before he moved to Morocco. A source from the Moroccan government confirmed the news to Morocco World News.
Terrorist pedigree
By the time he established himself in Marrakech, his Moroccan “home,” Abdellah’ Islamist pedigree had experienced a slight growth: from a lone pro-ISIS jewelry shop attacker, he had established himself as a recruiter, luring a number of his relatives to join radicalized cells.
Speaking to le 360, a source with briefing on the ongoing investigations confirmed the many suspicions Moroccan authorities’ yesterday press release had said about “Abdellah.”
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Investigators are yet sure of the exact extent of the man’s involvement in the death of Louisa Jespersen and Maren Ueland, le 360’s source said.
The article added, however, that elements at investigators’ disposal point to the evidence that Abdellah did communicate with and coordinated both the four-member death squad that killed the two tourists and the dozen others who were arrested afterwards.
There is no doubt that Abdellah has terrorist and violent tendencies, the source noted, further confirming that the suspect trained the Imlil tragedy’s perpetrators to use advanced communication technologies.
Addition to the Imlil incident suspects, Abdellah is also believed to have recruited a number of Swiss and English for ISIS-supporting groups.
Further investigations are underway to unearth the full extent of Abdellah’s involvement in the Imlil tragedy as well as other similar actions he may have been planning prior to his arrest.
