French Terror Suspects on Death Row in Morocco Since 1994 Hotel Attack

Incarcerated in Fez and then in Salé before being transferred to the Kenitra prison, the two French of Algerian and Moroccan origin had been behind the attack carried out at the Asni hotel in Marrakech in 1994. They had burst into the hotel, killing two Spanish tourists and seriously injuring a French tourist on vacation in Morocco.

Stéphane Ait Iddir and Redouane Hamadi, aged 22 and 23 at the time respectively, were part of a "criminal association" made up of seven young people. But they were the only ones to be subsequently sentenced to death by the Fez Court of Appeal, recalls the newspaper Le Parisien.

The French state has always declared itself opposed to the death penalty, whatever the place and circumstances, in order to "promote the commutation of these sentences." But the two convicts seem to have lost confidence and even refused to resume contact with the French consul in Morocco.

"Enough hypocrisy, France has let our children down. Perhaps because their names have Arab overtones even though they are French," the relatives of the convicts have lamented again recently.