Alleged Jihadist Leader Confesses to Beheading Scandinavian Tourist in Morocco

Abdessamad Ejjoud appeared at the bar, before the criminal chamber of the Salé Court of Appeal, with a tight throat, a troubled look and his head bowed. A premonitory sign which, for many, could already guess the rest of the events. Already, at the beginning of the hearing, the president of the court had drawn up the endless list of charges against him. When he had been asked if he recognized all these accusations, Abdessamed had only given the president of the court a casual nod in response.

The interrogation of this alleged leader of the branch was not difficult, as he was ready to cooperate for the manifestation of the truth. Father of two children, Abdessamad Ejjoud, who had appeared alongside 23 other defendants, did indeed admit to having organized with Younes Ouaziyad (27) and Rachid Afatti (33), all from Marrakech, the expedition that cost the lives of the two hikers killed in December in the High Atlas region.

In retracing his path as a jihadist, Abdessamad recounted his first conviction following his attempt to join the Islamic State (IS) in Syria and his release for a reduced sentence in 2015. Later, he becomes a seller of pressed oranges in front of Marrakech mosques from where he will be chased away by the authorities. It is then that he becomes an imam, relying on teaching received in a Koranic school in Marrakech. A school which, according to Le Monde Afrique, would be "affiliated with a Salafist association known in Morocco for its hostility to jihadism and its rejection of any form of violence".

Tried in this trial (postponed to June 13) for having murdered Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, a 24-year-old Danish student, and her friend Maren Ueland, a 28-year-old Norwegian, who were camping on an isolated site before a mountain hike, Abdessamad Ejjoud and the twenty other suspects risk the death penalty which remains a sentence always pronounced in Morocco, except "that a moratorium has been applied de facto since 1993", recalls the media.