Marrakech – After reexamination, the Supreme Court of Morocco has sent the case of two Dutch nationals, sentenced to death for the murder of a student at the “La Crème” café in Marrakech in November 2017, back to the Court of Appeals in Casablanca for retrial.
Shardyone S., 32, and Edwin R.M., 28, were hired to assassinate a rival of Ridouan Taghi, a notorious Dutch drug lord, but mistakenly shot and killed the son of a high-ranking Moroccan judge.
The Supreme Court ruled that the defendants’ cooperation with authorities after their arrest was not sufficiently considered as a mitigating factor during their appeal trial. Both men had confessed to the crime and provided information about those who ordered the hit.
As a result, their death sentences could be commuted to life imprisonment or a lengthy prison term in the new trial, according to the Dutch news outlet De Telegraaf.
Taghi himself was sentenced to life in prison in the Netherlands in February 2024 for a series of murders carried out by his cartel, dubbed the “Mocro Maffia,” between 2015 and 2017.
He is believed to be the mastermind behind the Marrakech shooting, which was intended to target a rival drug trafficker but instead claimed the life of an innocent bystander.
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Sixteen other members of Taghi’s organization received sentences ranging from a few years to life in prison.
Although Morocco has not carried out any executions since 1993, Shardyone S. and Edwin R.M. have been held in harsh conditions on death row.
A reduction in their sentences could eventually allow them to be transferred to the Netherlands to serve their time.
The case has shed light on the involvement of European criminal networks in the sporadic violence that plagues the North African country.
The “La Crème” café shooting shocked the Moroccan public, as the establishment is located in the popular tourist district of Hivernage. Initial rumors of a terrorist attack circulated on social media, but authorities quickly dispelled these claims.
