Rabat – Morocco’s general prosecutor announced on Thursday that seven more suspects in the murder of the two Scandinavian tourists appeared before the investigating judge at Rabat’s Court of Appeals.
The prosecutor requested the investigating judge put the suspects, including a Swiss-Spanish suspect who allegedly recruited and trained the others to use state-of-the-art communication technologies, in preventive detention.
Last Sunday, December 30, 15 members arrested in connection to the double murder underwent a similar investigation at the Court of Appeals in Rabat.
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The Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ) arrested 22 suspects in total, including a Swiss national who also holds Spanish nationality on December 29 in Marrakech.
After he had converted to Islam, the Swiss man became “radicalized” and left Switzerland to form a terrorist group.
According to BCIJ head Abdelhak Khiame, although four of the suspects pledged allegiance to ISIS in a video, they committed the crime independently of ISIS, but were influenced by the self-styled “caliph” of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Authorities found the bodies of Danish tourist Louisa Vesterager Jespersen and Norwegian tourist Maren Ueland on December 17 near Imlil in the Atlas Mountains. Khiame confirmed that the victims were stabbed and decapitated.
The murder of the tourists made international headlines. Shocked that the brutal murder happened in their country, Moroccans expressed sympathy and solidarity with the victims’ families and countries of origin.
