King Mohammed VI Pardons Eight Women Convicted in 2016 Daesh-Linked Terror Case

The Joint Commission for the Defense of Islamist Detainees revealed the identity of these eight women who were part of a terrorist cell close to Daesh, which was dismantled by the Judicial Investigation Office in October 2016. They are Lamia Azi, from Sidi Slimane, Chaimae El Hassani, Meriem Mekki and Fatima Al Jabbari from Kenitra, Soukaina El Abaoui and Hanane Zaimi from Tan-tan, as well as the two sisters Zineb and Meriem Makboul from Ain Taoujdate.

They had adhered to the ideals of Daesh and were preparing to carry out suicide operations against sensitive facilities in Morocco. Some of them have family ties with Moroccan fighters in the ranks of Daesh, as well as with some supporters of extremist Islamist groups, reports Le360.

The royal pardon granted to them comes after they successfully followed the "Reconciliation" program, launched in 2017 by the General Delegation for Prison Administration and Reintegration (DGAPR), for inmates involved in extremism and terrorism cases. This program aims to supervise and psychologically and intellectually rehabilitate inmates in order to facilitate their integration into society, on a different path from the one that led them behind bars.

Before the king granted them pardon, the eight inmates revised their ideological orientations, rejected extremism and terrorism. They also and above all expressed their attachment to respecting the values of the nation, the same source specifies.