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Orakel
28-09-03, 18:25
Morocco death sentences


A court in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, has sentenced two men to death for terrorist-related offences.
The two, Abdelouahab Rabii and Hamid Slimani, were convicted of preparing acts of terrorism, murdering a government official and stealing weapons from a barracks.

Eleven others were jailed.

Meanwhile, the trial has opened in Rabat of three 14-year-old girls, including twins, facing charges of planning the suicide bombing of a supermarket.

Iman and Sanaa Laghrisse and their friend Hakima Rejlane, are the youngest suspects so far in a series of trials targeting Islamists in the wake of the bombings in Casablanca in May that killed 45 people.

The announcement of their arrest earlier this month caused a sensation with the fact that girls so young were apparently prepared to die for the cause of Islamic extremism.

Desperation

According to the BBC's reporter in Morocco, Sebastian Usher, the information that has filtered out about the girls since has provoked both pity and fear.


Dozens died in the series of blasts in Casablanca
According to the police, they were planning to carry out a suicide attack on a supermarket that sells alcohol in Rabat.

The alleged plot apparently came to light when they asked their local imam, or Islamic preacher, if he would give his official blessing with a fatwa.

It has been reported that the girls come from a broken home, had been living in poverty with little education and may have been forced into prostitution.

The police say the girls came increasingly under the influence of Islamists as they tried to find a way out of their desperate situation.

The BBC's reporter says that the prosecution case seems likely to focus on the girls' alleged manipulation by Islamic extremists.

Meanwhile, in Casablanca, a court has given long jail sentences to two men described as "theoreticians" of the Islamist group, Salafia Jihadia, which has been blamed for the May bombings.

More than 1,000 suspected Islamic extremists have been arrested since then, with the vast majority of them accused of plotting other attacks.

Human rights groups here have expressed their concern about the trials of these suspects, saying the police evidence has not been sufficiently tested in court.

bbc.com