The Rabat Court of Appeals’ Criminal Chamber, which oversees charges of terrorism, handed down sentences, on Thursday, varying from execution to life in prison for those convicted of murdering an on-duty police officer and subsequently mutilating the corpse.
The first accused was condemned to death and two others to life imprisonment, while eight defendants were each sentenced to five years in jail.
One defendant in particular who was charged with forming a criminal gang to prepare and commit terrorist acts infringing on public order, deliberate and premeditated assault, and possessing firearms and ammunition, was sentenced to four years.
On March 15, Casablanca’s Judicial Police nabbed three ISIS-infiltrated extremists between Casablanca and Sidi Harazem–near Fez–for involvement in the murder of a police officer while on duty.
The suspects were intending to use the officer’s firearm in a bank robbery to fund their criminal activities.
The attackers stabbed the officer with knives, mutilated his body and set it on fire in a rural area, near Casablanca.
Haboub Cherkaoui, Director of Morocco’s Judicial Investigation Bureau (BCIJ), revealed at a press conference that suspects involved in capital murder and the ensuing mutilation of the police officer’s body in Casablanca had extremist thinking and had adopted specific terrorist methods and tactics.