A street vendor, a plumber and a carpenter are among two dozen jihadist suspects who return to a Moroccan court Thursday, charged in connection with the brutal murder of two Scandinavian hikers.
Danish student Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, and 28-year-old Norwegian Maren Ueland had their throats slit before they were beheaded in December at an isolated site in the High Atlas mountains.
The main suspects are all from the Marrakech region near the site of the killings, which shocked the North African country.
Abdessamad Ejjoud, a 25-year-old street vendor, is the alleged leader of the group. He had been jailed for trying to join the Islamic State group in Syria but was released in 2015.
Younes Ouaziyad, 27, and Rachid Afatti, 33, have been named as the other two key suspects. The others have been accused of links to the killers and of forming part of a “terrorist cell”.
The three main defendants accused of direct involvement, who allegedly pledged allegiance to IS, could face the death penalty. A total of 24 defendants were to appear in the criminal court in Sale, near Rabat, to face charges including promoting terrorism, forming a terrorist cell and premeditated murder.
An opening hearing was held on May 2 but immediately postponed for two weeks after defence lawyers requested more time to prepare their case.
A Spanish-Swiss convert to Islam is among the suspects on trial, accused of teaching the main accused how to use encrypted communications and how to fire a gun. Nature lovers Jespersen and Ueland shared an apartment and went to Norway’s Bo University where they were studying to be guides. They had travelled together to Morocco for their Christmas holidays.
Their lives were cut short in the foothills of Toubkal, the highest summit in North Africa, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the city of Marrakesh, a tourist magnet.