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Denmark analysing suspected video of Morocco murder: authorities

Danish security services are analysing a video thought to show the murder of one of two women hikers killed in Morocco by suspected extremists, authorities said Thursday.

Published: 20 December 2018 15:57 CET
Denmark analysing suspected video of Morocco murder: authorities
A photo showing the location in the High Atlas moutains near Imlil, Morocco were the victims were murdered. Photo: Terje Bendiksby / NTB scanpix/Ritzau Scanpix

The PET intelligence service and police “are analysing the video and cannot currently make any other comment about its authenticity,” they said in a statement.

PET had earlier said that a video published online could show the murder of one of the women.

Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, a Danish woman of 24 and a 28-year-old Norwegian, Maren Ueland, were found dead on Monday in the High Atlas mountains where they had been camping.

Moroccan investigators say they have arrested four suspects in a probe into
the murders.

Morocco's central judicial investigations office said it was looking into a possible “terrorist motive”.

A man seen in the video is heard railing against the “enemies of Allah”.

READ ALSO: Morocco arrests three suspects in Islamist-linked murders of Danish, Norwegian hikers: source

TRIAL

Morocco death penalties confirmed for killers of Scandinavian hikers

A Moroccan anti-terrorist court on Wednesday confirmed death sentences handed down against three men convicted of beheading two Scandinavian tourists last December, and sentenced a fourth man to be executed.

Published: 31 October 2019 10:27 CET
Morocco death penalties confirmed for killers of Scandinavian hikers
Moroccan police stand guard during the trial in Sale earlier this year. Photo: AFP

All four defendants had been convicted at a trial in July, but the fourth defendant was originally sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of the two women, killed while hiking in the High Atlas mountains.

Those sentenced to death included ringleader Abdessamad Ejjoud, a street vendor and underground imam, who had confessed to orchestrating the attack with two other radicalised Moroccans.

They had admitted killing 24-year-old Danish student Louisa Vesterager Jespersen and 28-year-old Norwegian Maren Ueland in murders that shocked the North African country.

Although the death penalty remains legal in Morocco, there have been no executions there since 1993 because of a moratorium, and the issue of capital punishment is a matter of political debate.

The court in Sale, near Rabat, confirmed jail sentences of between five and 30 years against 19 other men, but increased the jail sentence of another man from 15 to 20 years.

The court also confirmed an order for the three men who carried out the killings and their accomplices to pay two million dirhams (190,000 euros) in compensation to Ueland's family.

But it refused a request from the Jespersen family for 10 million dirhams in compensation from the Moroccan state for its “moral responsibility”.

READ ALSO: Convicts appeal in Morocco case of murdered Danish, Norwegian hikers