Swiss sentenced to 20 years in prison for Morocco murder

A security team is seen in December at the spot where the bodies of two Scandinavian tourists were found Keystone

A Spanish-Swiss convert to Islam has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for “forming a terrorist group” in connection with the murder of two Scandinavian hikers in Morocco inspired by the ideology of Islamic State. 

The man, also accused of persuading people to join militant groups, has always claimed his innocence. 

“This verdict is cruel and unacceptable. We’re going to appeal,” said his lawyer, regretting that the judges hadn’t taken into account “proof of his innocence”.

A second Swiss citizen had already been sentenced to ten years in prison in April for participation in a terrorist act, supporting terrorism and withholding information relating to a crime. 

On Thursday a Moroccan antiterrorist court in Salé, near the capital Rabat, also sentenced three men to death. The first, a 25-year-old street vendor, confessed to organising the murder with two companions, a 27-year-old carpenter and a 33-year-old man who had filmed the scene. 

Compensation

In December 2018 a 24-year-old Danish student and her friend, a 28-year-old Norwegian, were decapitated while camping on an isolated site in the High Atlas, a mountainous region in southern Morocco popular with hikers. 

A group of 24 men suspected of being linked to these murders or belonging to a jihadist cell have been tried since the beginning of May in Morocco. The other 21 defendants received sentences ranging from five years in prison to life. 

The court also sentenced the three men convicted of murder, as well as one of their accomplices, to pay two million dirhams (CHF206,000, $209,000) in compensation to the Norwegian girl’s parents. But the court rejected the family’s demand of ten million dirhams from the Moroccan state for its “moral responsibility”.