Three men have been sentenced to death in Morocco for the Isis-inspired murder of two Scandinavian hikers in the Atlas mountains last December.
The two victims, Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, from Denmark, and Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway, were beheaded by a group of men who wanted to impress Islamic State. The three men confessed to their murder at a court in Salé, near Rabat.
Morocco has not carried out an execution since 1993, but prosecutors called for the death penalty during the 11-week trial.
RELATED | Trial for murder of Scandinavian hikers to open in Morocco
RELATED | Trial for murder of Scandinavian hikers to open in Morocco
Last week a letter from Jespersen’s mother was read out in court which said: “The most just thing would be to give these beasts the death penalty they deserve.”
Prosecutors said Abdessamad Ejjoud, 25, a street vendor and underground imam, was the ringleader and admitted to killing one of the women, and Younes Ouaziyad, 27, a carpenter, confessed to the other murder. The third man, Rachid Afatti, 33, videoed the murders on his phone.
The women’s bodies were found by two French walkers near the tourist hub of Imlil, where the two friends had been spending a holiday. The defendants had stabbed them to death in their sleeping bags and then beheaded them, filming it all and posting it online later. The video went viral, including in Islamic State supporters’ circles and in far right and white nationalist networks, according to an investigation by the Washington Post.
RELATED | Morocco: Trial nears end for 24 suspects in killing of Scandinavian hikers
RELATED | Morocco: Trial nears end for 24 suspects in killing of Scandinavian hikers
Before the murders the men had made their own Isis flag, which they hung behind them for an allegiance video, but Isis did not accept their pledge or distribute the video.
The prosecution said all three were “bloodthirsty monsters”, pointing out that an autopsy report had found 23 injuries on Jespersen’s decapitated body and seven on Ueland’s.
The defendants came from poor backgrounds and were badly educated, and the defence team argued there were “mitigating circumstances on account of their precarious social conditions and psychological disequilibrium”.
“I regret what happened and I am still trying to grasp it,” Ejjoud said in court in May.
Twenty-one other men who were accused of playing a part in the murders or of being linked to Ejjoud are still awaiting a verdict. Some of them denied involvement in the murders in court. The prosecution has called for jail terms of between 15 years and life for them.
Jespersen’s lawyers accused authorities of failing to monitor the activities of some of the suspects before the murders, but the court rejected the family’s request for 10m dirhams in compensation from the Moroccan state for its “moral responsibility”.
The case has shocked Morocco, which welcomes millions of visitors each year, experiences very few terrorist attacks and relies on tourists for 10% of its national income.
The two friends studied outdoor leadership, culture and ecophilosophy together in Norway. Jespersen, who loved the outdoors, dreamed of going to the Arctic but said in a video she posted on social media: “Sometimes I take some detours before I end up where I want.”
Ueland had been uncertain about whether to go on the trip but finally decided to join her friend.
Source: The Guardian, Ruth Maclean, July 19, 2019
Morocco hikers: Three get death penalty for Scandinavian tourist murders
Three Islamic State group supporters who murdered two Scandinavian hikers in Morocco have been sentenced to death.
The verdicts for ringleader Abdessamad Ejjoud, Younes Ouaziyad and Rachid Afatti follow petitions on social media calling for their execution.
Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, from Denmark, and Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway, were found beheaded in the High Atlas mountains in December.
If the executions go ahead, they will be the first in Morocco since 1993.
That year saw the country introduce a moratorium on capital punishment.
During the trial, it emerged that Ejjoud, 25, and Ouaziyad, 27, had beheaded the two women while Afatti, 33, filmed the murders on his mobile phone.
"The most just thing would be to give these beasts the death penalty they deserve," Helle Petersen, Ms Jespersen's mother, said in a letter that was read out in court last week.
What happened in court?
The verdict follows an 11-week trial in Salé near the capital Rabat.
Ejjoud, an underground imam, admitted killing one of the two women in May. "I beheaded one of them... I regret it," the street vendor told the court.
French media report that Ejjoud had served a prison sentence in Morocco for trying to join the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, and was released in 2015.
Afatti filmed the attack on his mobile phone. A video appearing to show one of the women being beheaded was shared online by IS supporters.
Police in Norway said the video was almost certainly real.
The three men all said they were IS supporters, although IS has not said it was behind the killings.
In court, Ejjoud said: "We loved Islamic State and prayed to God for it."
Their defence team said there were "mitigating circumstances on account of their precarious social conditions and psychological disequilibrium", AFP reported.
They said the men had a "very low" level of education and came from modest backgrounds.
Kevin Zoller Guervos, a Spanish-Swiss convert to Islam, was the only non-Moroccan on trial.
He was accused of teaching the main suspects how to use an encrypted messaging service and to use weapons.
He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for "joining a terrorist group", AFP reported.
Morocco's anti-terror chief, quoted by the AFP news agency, said the group was inspired by IS - but had no contact with IS militants in combat zones.
The prosecution labelled the three killers as "bloodthirsty monsters" after the autopsy report found 23 injuries on Ms Jespersen's decapitated body and seven on that of Ms Ueland.
Who were the victims?
Ms Jespersen and Ms Ueland were flatmates at Norway's Bo University.
Their bodies were found on 17 December in a tent in an isolated area near Mount Toubkal, Morocco's highest peak and a popular destination for hikers.
Both had taken full precautions ahead of their trip, Ms Ueland's mother said last year.
The women were on a Christmas camping trip and were studying to become tour guides.
The killers took four days to identify the women as targets, the prosecution said, and chose them because other potential victims were with guides, AFP said.
Moroccan authorities were criticised by Ms Vesterager Jespersen's lawyer for failing to monitor the suspects' activities, which could have prevented the women being killed.
The Jespersen family requested 10m dirhams ($1m; £800,000) compensation from the Moroccan government for its "moral responsibility" but this was rejected by the court, AFP reported, but the three men who were convicted were ordered to pay 2m dirhams in compensation.
⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.
 |  |
Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!
"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde