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.
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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.
INTERNET
SOURCE: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7261523/Three-jihadists-beheaded-two-female-Scandinavian-hikers-Morocco-sentenced-death.html
 |
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.
VIDEO SOURCE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XEySY-sxiE
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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