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Thursday, July 18, 2019

THREE MILITANTS SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR THE MURDERS OF TWO FEMALE SCANDINAVIAN HIKERS [JULY 18, 2019]


            On this date, July 18, 2019, three ISIS Militants are sentenced to death by firing squad for the murders of two Scandinavian women hiking in the Atlas Mountains.

  
The bodies of Maren Ueland, left, and Louisa Vesterager Jespersen were discovered near the base of Mount Toubkal. One of the women was decapitated [Monday December 17, 2018]
[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/student-backpacker-found-beheaded-in-moroccan-mountains-c6pncw8d5]


Morocco: 3 sentenced to death in Scandinavian women slayings

AMIRA EL-MASAITI

July 19, 2019


SALE, Morocco (AP) — Three men were convicted of terrorism and sentenced to death by a Moroccan court Thursday for the brutal slaying of two Scandinavian women hiking in the Atlas Mountains.

A fourth suspect who fled the scene was given life in prison.

After several hours of deliberation, the court handed 19 accomplices jail terms ranging from five to 30 years. All have 10 days to appeal.

Security forces sit inside a court room before the start of a final trial session for suspects charged in connection with killing of two Scandinavian tourists in Morocco's Atlas Mountains, in Sale, near Rabat, Morocco, Thursday, July 18, 2019. The three main defendants in the brutal slaying of two female Scandinavian hikers have asked for forgiveness from Allah ahead of a verdict. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)


Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway, and Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, from Denmark, were fatally stabbed in December. The slayings were recorded on video and posted online.

None of the 23 reacted as the sentences were read out Thursday, but their families rushed out of the crowded courtroom crying.

The men claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group.

All 23 addressed the court before the verdicts, most begging for leniency.

The main defendants, who asked Allah for forgiveness, were carpenters Jounes Ouzayed and Rashid Afatti, and street merchant Abdessamad Al Joud. They were sentenced to death.

The man who fled the scene is Khaiali Abderahman, who got life.

Morocco only rarely carries out death sentences. The last execution was in 1993 of Mustapha Tabet, a once-powerful Casablanca police commissioner, convicted of raping and abusing hundreds of victims.

In closing arguments in June, the prosecutor asked the court to sentence the top suspects to death, and described the three main defendants as "human beasts."

A Swiss-Spanish convert to Islam, Kevin Zoller, who had pleaded innocent, received a 20-year sentence. Prosecutors said he had links to the men who orchestrated the women's killings and direct contact with IS members in Syria via the encrypted messaging service Telegram.

Another Swiss man was sentenced in April to 10 years in prison, convicted on charges including "deliberately helping perpetrators of terrorist acts" and training terrorists, the state-run news agency MAP said at the time.

The lawyer for Vesterager's family said he was "100% satisfied" with the verdicts. Khalid El Fataoui noted that Louisa Vesterager's mother had asked the court in a letter at an earlier hearing this month to sentence the killers to death.

"We obtained what she asked for."

The court also ordered the four main defendants to pay the equivalent of $209,000 in damages to the family of the Norwegian victim, but refused a demand from the Danish victim's family for the Moroccan state to pay damages.

El Fataoui said he would appeal.

 
3 of the Killers sentenced to death for the murders of Maren Ueland and Louisa Vesterager Jespersen

Three jihadists who beheaded two female Scandinavian hikers in Morocco are sentenced to death after pleading for 'forgiveness from Allah' - as judge declares them 'human beasts'

·         23 Moroccan men appeared in court to be sentenced for murdering Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway and Vesterager Jespersen, 24, from Denmark
·         Three men accused of stabbing them to death were handed death sentences 
·         Other 20 begged Allah for mercy as they waited to hear their fates Thursday 
·         Men filmed themselves beheading the pair and calling them 'enemies of God' 

By Chris Pleasance for MailOnline
 
Three suspected ISIS militants have been sentenced to death by firing squad for beheading two Scandinavian hikers in Morocco last year.

Suspected ringleader Abdessamad Ejjoud and two others - believed to be Jounes Ouzayed and Rashid Afatti - were handed the maximum sentence on Thursday after begging Allah for forgiveness. 

The men had filmed themselves beheading Norwegian Maren Ueland, 28, and 24-year-old Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, from Denmark, in Morocco's High Atlas Mountains in December. 

The footage was later circulated in Islamist circles online. In the video the men can be heard branding the women 'enemies of God'.

A separate video showed four of the men pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in front of a black and white ISIS flag. 

All 23 defendants addressed the court on Thursday, most pleaded with Allah for mercy, before the judges retired to decide their fate.

In his closing arguments in June, the prosecutor described the three as 'human beasts' and asked for death sentences. 

Thursday's sentencing marks the first time since 1993 that Morocco has handed out  the death penalty. 

The verdicts were given at a final court session of the 11-week trial in Sale, near the capital Rabat.

Journalists gathered outside the anti-terrorist court ahead of verdicts expected to be announced later Thursday in the case that has shocked the North African country.

'We expect sentences that match the cruelty of the crime,' lawyer Khaled El Fataoui, speaking for the family of Danish victim Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, told AFP.

Helle Petersen, her mother, in a letter read out in court last week, said: 'The most just thing would be to give these beasts the death penalty they deserve.' 

Petitions on social media have likewise called for their execution.

The three admitted to killing Jespersen, 24, and 28-year-old Norwegian Maren Ueland, whose family has declined to take part in the trial. 

The prosecution has called for jail terms of between 15 years and life for the 21 other defendants on trial since May 2. 

A life sentence has been sought for Abderrahim Khayali, a 33-year-old plumber, who had accompanied the three alleged assailants but left the scene before the murders.

The prosecution called for 20 years in jail for Kevin Zoller Guervos, a Spanish-Swiss convert to Islam.

The only non-Moroccan in the group, Guervos is accused of having taught the main suspects how to use an encrypted messaging service and to use weapons.

His lawyer, Saad Sahli, said Guervos had cut all ties with the other suspects 'once he knew they had extremist ideas' more than 18 months ago. 

All but three of those on trial had said they were supporters of the Islamic State group, according to the prosecution, although IS itself has never claimed responsibility for the murders.

The three killers of the women were 'bloodthirsty monsters', the prosecution said, pointing out that an autopsy report had found 23 injuries on Jespersen's decapitated body and seven on that of Ueland.

Ejjoud, an underground imam, had confessed at a previous hearing to beheading one of the women and Younes Ouaziyad, a 27-year-old carpenter, the other, while Rachid Afatti, 33, had videoed the murders on his mobile phone.

The defence team argued there were 'mitigating circumstances on account of their precarious social conditions and psychological disequilibrium'.

Coming from modest backgrounds, with a 'very low' level of education, the defendants lived for the most part in low-income areas of Marrakesh.

Jespersen's lawyers have accused authorities of having failed to monitor the activities of some of the suspects before the murders.

Defendants are brought to the court in Sale at an earlier stage of the trial. Photo: Stringer / Reuters / Ritzau Scanpix

Morocco sentences three to death for murder of Scandinavian tourists

Published on Jul 19, 2019
Islamic State group supporters were sentenced to death by a court in Morocco on Thursday over the beheadings of two Scandinavian women on a hiking trip in the High Atlas Mountains.

  

OTHER LINKS:
Moroccans Condemn Tourist Murders at Danish, Norwegian Embassies


Mother of murdered Danish student urges death sentences in Morocco trial





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