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| Africa: North |
| Morocco terror hearing delayed |
| 2003-08-13 |
| Six people appeared before a Rabat court on Wednesday in connection with last May’s bomb attacks in Casablanca. The court in the Moroccan capital promptly adjourned the hearing until Friday to give defence lawyers more time to study their cases. A Frenchman, Pierric Picard, 34, from Lyons in southeastern France, was arrested near the northern Moroccan city of Tangiers in early July and is charged with "failing to inform the authorities of a terrorist plot". The five other defendants face more serious charges of having co-ordinated attacks in the north African kingdom with another Frenchman, Pierre Robert, who is due to appear before the same court in the next few weeks. While the suspects are not facing charges directly related to the May 16 suicide bombings in Casablanca which killed 44 people, a clampdown following the attack has put hundreds of suspected Islamist militants behind bars. Moroccan Justice Minister Mohamed Bouzoubaa said on Wednesday that 634 alleged Islamists had been charged since May 16, bringing the total number charged before and after the Casablanca attacks to 1,042. Of those, 699 are alleged to belong to the Moroccan Muslim radical group Salafia Jihadia, believed to be behind the bombings. Morocco seems to be quietly taking its terror issues seriously...that’s a lot of Islamists in jug. |
| Posted by:seafarious |