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Four to Die for Casablanca Bombings
Lahsan Moqnie • Asharq Al-Awsat, Arab News
CASABLANCA, 20 August 2003 — A Casablanca court yesterday sentenced four men to death for their involvement in a wave of near-simultaneous suicide bombings in May that killed 45 people, including 12 bombers.
The government blamed a clandestine Islamist movement, the Salafia Jihadia, for the May 16 night bombing and said some of its members had indirect links to Al-Qaeda.
The four were found guilty of having planned the simultaneous bombings of a Spanish restaurant, a five-star hotel and a Jewish community center.
Two of those sentenced to death, Mohamed Omari, 23, and Rachid Jalil, 27, admitted they were the only survivors from the 14-member bomb squad which set off in taxis from the shantytown of Sidi Moumen on the outskirts of Casablanca with homemade explosives stuffed into backpacks.
Yassine Lahnech, a street vendor, 22, was accused of having indoctrinated recruits to the group, and Hassan Taoussi of being an active member of the shadowy grouping.
During the trial, Omari, a night watchman — testified he was “not happy with the (political) situation in Morocco” and had “hoped to blow himself up” at a major downtown hotel that was targeted.
Omari was one of those assigned to bomb the five-star Farah Hotel but was seized by by-standers after running away from the hotel, where one of his associates had already detonated his bomb.
Judicial sources said it could take one year, or one month, for a decision to be made on the men’s execution. “It all depends on how swiftly the state, and the king, want this to go,” one lawyer said. “Only King Mohammed has the power to commute death sentences”.
There were until yesterday 152 people on death row in Morocco, including 10 extremists arrested before the Casablanca bombings and sentenced in July for a series of murders.
Capital punishment has only been put into practice once in Morocco in the last 20 years. A police commissioner was executed in 1993 for a three-year orgy of rape and sexual violence.
The condemned men were among dozens of defendants in a trial of members of the Salafia Jihadia.
Eighty-three other defendants were convicted of being members of the outlawed group and handed sentences ranging from 10 months in prison to life.
Other charges included threatening state security or taking part in a criminal association. Thirty-nine people were sentenced to life in prison.
Security was extremely tight, with defendants lined up behind a bulletproof glass shield and a metal detector in the courtroom. When the verdict was announced, defendants cried “Allah-o-Akbar!”
Investigators have said the suicide bombers were all recruited from Sidi Moumen. Though they were all of Moroccan nationality, local authorities believe an international network was behind the attacks.
The four-judge panel deliberated for about 14 hours before announcing the verdict at around 1 a.m. local time. Defendants have eight days to appeal.
Those sentenced to life in prison were convicted of their involvement in preparing unsuccessful attacks in tourist attractions, including the historic city of Marrakech and two beach resorts, Agadir and Essaouira.
Three leaders of the Salafia Jihadia were sentenced to 30 years in prison. They included Mohamed Fizazi, 55, who previously preached at a mosque in Hamburg, Germany, frequented by some of the hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
Two young defendants received 10-month sentences.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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