The mother of the Swiss-Spanish suspect arrested in connection to the killing of two tourists in Morocco believes that her son is innocent.
Rabat – Spanish news outlet El Mundo has shed light on the life of the Swiss-Spanish suspect arrested in connection to the murder of Louisa Vesterager Jespersen and Maren Uland near Imlil in the Atlas Mountains.
Gema, the mother of the 25-year old dual national, said that all allegations against her son are a “lie.”
Gema, who lives in Spain, claimed that her son was with family in Geneva when the double murder was committed on December 17.
The suspect’s legal name is Kevin Zoller Guervos. However, the suspect calls himself Abdellah after converting to Islam in 2011.
On December 28, Morocco’s Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ) announced the arrest of Guervos in connection to the murder.
The head of BCIJ, Abdelhak Khiame, said that the suspect was not directly involved in the murder, but he knew the suspects.
Guervos trained some of the other arrested suspects in shooting, according to BCIJ. He also recruited sub-Saharans with whom he planned to join ISIS in northern Mali. Guervos was in contact with ISIS members in Syria through Telegram messaging.
Quoted by El Mundo, Gema acknowledged that her son had experienced a difficult adolescence after his father’s death when Guervos’ was just 15.
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She said that her son “smoked a lot of joints, burned cars and had committed a number of robberies.”
A Swiss official had previously said that Guervos had a criminal record in Geneva.
One of his friends said that Guervos believed that he had “demons in his head that told him what he had to do, and that thanks to the Qur’an he had finally learned to control them.”
The suspect was also receiving Swiss disability benefits for a mental disorder.
He came to Morocco for marriage
Gema said that between the Bible and the Qur’an, Guervos chose the Islamic holy book, which helped him to realize all his mistakes.
She added that he converted to Islam after reading the Qur’an and has been praying daily asking for forgiveness for his previous mistakes.
“He told me he was going to Morocco to marry what he called a clean woman [virgin]. Two years ago he found her and now they have a son,” she recalled.
The suspect arrived in Morocco in 2015 and moved to Marrakech, where he met the self-styled “emir” of the jihadist cell involved in the murder of the Scandinavian tourists.
The self-styled emir is the same person who decapitated one of the two victims. The Swiss suspect also participated “in several secret meetings with the members” of the cell, according to Khiame.
Now, 23 suspects are facing terror-related charges in connection to the double murder. All of the suspects have appeared before the court.
Convicted terrorists typically receive sentences ranging from 10 to 20 years in prison.
