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RABAT, February 23, 2012 (AFP)
A Moroccan court on Thursday sentenced 27 men arrested last year to prison terms of one to six years for planning terrorist attacks, officials said.
The tribunal found they had formed a “criminal gang with the aim of preparing and committing terrorist acts in a collective effort to cause
serious harm to public order… and commit robberies and assaults.”
The anti-terrorism court in the Rabat sister city of Sale identified the ringleader as 40-year-old Moroccan Hicham El Ba, said the judicial source.
On January 4, 2011 the interior ministry announced the arrest of the group, including a member of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which it said had planned to make Morocco a “base for preparing terrorist acts”.
Authorities had earlier found a weapons stockpile near Amgala, south of Western Sahara, a discovery that also saw five soldiers brought before a tribunal charged with lack of vigilance.
AQIM fighters, who have committed attacks and kidnappings, are thought to be based in the border regions of Algeria, Niger, Mali and Mauritania.
