Five Moroccans arrested by US forces in Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo base in Cuba before being returned here had joined the Al-Qaeda extremist network, a police report said here Wednesday. The five men, whose eight-day interrogation ended on Wednesday, were to be tried before Rabat criminal court.| Moroccan jails are not so nice. And Moroccan judges haven't been letting many terrorists go free. |
Extracts of the police report said that according to inquiries "it has been proved that they joined the terrorist network Al-Qaeda" and there was also proof of "solid links and various contacts with a group of cells and organizations that have the same terrorist aims." The suspects - Mohamed Ouzar, 24, Mohamed Mazouz, 38, Radouane Chekkouri, 32, Abdellah Tabarak, 49 and Brahim Benchakroun, 25 - were turned over to the Moroccan authorities on August 1 by the United States in the framework of "international cooperation in the fight against terrorism." "These people underwent military training in Afghanistan where they learned among other things how to use arms and prepare explosives," the report said. They face trial for "forming a criminal band with the aim of preparing and committing acts of terrorism, preparation to carry out a collective plan aimed at harming public order, and belonging to a banned organization," a judicial source said.They categorically denied all the charges, the source said.| And then their lips fell off. |
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