Rabat – Head of the Moroccan Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation, or the BCIJ, Abdelhak El Khiyame, has announced that his agency has managed to thwart 341 terrorist attacks over the past 14 years.
Speaking to Moroccan news agency MAP, Al Khiyam revealed that since 2002, the BCIJ has dismantled 167 cells, including 46 belonging to ISIS.
Continuing his remarks, Al Khiyam added that 2963 suspected terrorists were arrested and referred to the judiciary courts, 277 of whom already had criminal records.
Al Khiyam went on to note that “553 of Moroccan fighters linked to terrorist groups have died,” expressing his sadness that those persons were innocent victims of brainwashing.
Al Khiyam asserted that the BCIJ has treated fives cases related to weapons possession,” noting that 14 women and 20 minors have been referred to the judiciary for trial and 27 have been deported to date. He went on to say that “the convicts were planning to carry out terrorist attacks with explosives.”
Earlier this month, Al Khiyam had said that ISIS started targeting sleeper cells in Morocco which had avoided detection by police,” adding that “all of these plans have been thwarted as a direct result of Morocco’s integrated approach, combining security, social and economic components.”
After the unprecedented dismantling of a female terrorist cell in October, composed of women all of whom had pledged allegiance to ISIS, in several different cities in Morocco, Al Khiyam blamed “Moroccan education,” for the susceptibility of Moroccan young people to ISIS’ rhetoric explaining “that ISIS tries to brainwash teenagers into thinking about terrorism.”
Edited by Constance Guidon
