We, the comrades of Unit 1012: The VFFDP, will not forget these two
women, Maren Ueland and Louisa Vesterager Jespersen and we hope those responsible will get the death penalty. Most
Moroccans themselves are sickened by this act of violence that they want the
perpetrators to die for their crime.
The mother of Louisa Jespersen wants the killers to be put to
death and we agree with her.
 |
Maren Ueland,
left, and Louisa Vesterager Jespersen were found dead in a popular tourist area
[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-46662748] |
Mother of murdered
Danish student urges death sentences in Morocco trial
AFP
12 July 2019
07:49 CEST+02:00
The mother of a Danish student beheaded
along with another Scandinavian woman while hiking in Morocco's High Atlas
mountains called Thursday for the suspected jihadist killers to face the death
penalty as their trial neared its end.
"The most just thing would be to
give these beasts the death penalty they deserve, I ask that of you," said Helle Petersen in a letter read by her lawyer
in an anti-terrorist court in Sale, near the capital Rabat.
"My life was destroyed the moment
that two policemen came to my door on December 17th to announce my daughter's
death," the
mother of 24-year-old Louisa Vesterager Jespersen wrote in the letter, read out
in total silence and with the defendants' faces impassive.
The trial was adjourned until a final hearing on
July 18th when the 24 defendants in a case that has shocked the North African
country would make final statements.
Prosecutors have already called for the death
penalty for the three main suspects behind the "bloodthirsty" murder
of the young Scandinavians in December.
The maximum sentence was sought for 25-year-old
suspected ringleader Abdessamad Ejjoud and two radicalised Moroccans, although
the country has had a de facto freeze on executions since 1993.
 |
Defendants are brought
to the court in Sale at an earlier stage of the trial. Photo: Stringer / Reuters
/ Ritzau Scanpix
|
Petitions on social media have likewise called for
their execution.
The three admitted to killing Jespersen 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 2nd.
The 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 (Isis) group, according to the prosecution,
although Isis itself has never claimed responsibility for the murders.
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 called for "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 appalling murders of the two women in an isolated mountain area.
The brutal killings could have been avoided had
authorities heeded information on the behaviour of street vendor Ejjoud, they
said.
But in response to the Danish family's demand for
compensation from Morocco
of around $1 million, a judicial agent representing the state denied the charges in court.
of around $1 million, a judicial agent representing the state denied the charges in court.
"There's no such thing as zero risk," he
said, pointing to terror attacks around the world.
"All of Morocco has been mortified by this
drama" not just the victims' families, he said.
The alleged ringleader, who had been convicted for
trying to join IS in Syria, was released early from prison in 2015 and went on
to meet former inmates and other individuals without checks by authorities,
attorney Khaled El Fataoui said.
Investigators have said the "cell" was
inspired by Isis ideology, but Morocco's anti-terror chief insisted the accused
had no contact with the jihadist group in conflict zones.
INTERNET SOURCE: https://www.thelocal.dk/20190712/mother-of-murdered-danish-student-urges-death-sentences-in-morocco-trial
 |
Louisa Jespersen (l) and
Maren Ueland (r)
|
 |
| Moroccans condemning murder of Scandinavian tourists, Louisa and Maren, in front of Danish embassy in Rabat. Morocco World News |
OTHER LINKS:
Moroccans
Condemn Tourist Murders at Danish, Norwegian Embassies
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