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Rabat – A terrorism suspect in Sale prison died today after a month and a half-long hunger strike he started in early November. A statement by Morocco’s national prison administration announced that the detainee died at 7am on Saturday morning.
The detainee in question was suspected to be affiliated to international extremist group the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, known as ISIS or Daesh. He had refused meals at the Sale prison, saying they came from “the tyrant.” The prisoner had announced his hunger strike on November 9 and again on November 13.
On Friday, the terrorism suspect was brought to Ibn Sina University Hospital in Rabat for medical examinations. He was then transferred back to Sale prison, where he died the following morning despite the efforts of the prison’s medical staff. Morocco’s prison authority has informed the public prosecutor and the detainnee’s family of his death.
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The news nearly two months after the deceased detainee murdered a prison warden in a prison in Tiflet, near Rabat. Citing a former terror suspect, a number of reports in the Moroccan press revealed that the deceased detainee was the same person who had locked a prison warden into his cell and murdered him with a sharp object on October 27. Three further prison staff were injured as they attempted to rescue their colleague from the detainnee’s cell.
The man was accused of being part of a five-man terrorist cell affiliated with ISIS. Morocco’s Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ) arrested the five men in Tangier; Tiflet, Temara and Skhirat. During his arrest, today’s deceased detainee showed “violent resistance” and injured a BCIJ officer involved in the arrest.
The deceased Terrorism suspect had a criminal record and had been moved from Tiflet to Sale after the violent attack on prison staff. While the suspect’s affiliation to ISIS is yet to be determined in court, his pattern of violence against security staff has been established by the authorities. The BCIJ has estimated it prevented a “bloodbath” by foiling the deceased’s five-member extremist cell.
