Moroccan Court Sentences IS-Linked Killers to Death in Scandinavian Hikers’ Murder Case

The facts date back to the end of 2018, in a mountainous region of the Moroccan Atlas, popular with hikers. While they were camping on an isolated site in the High Atlas, a 24-year-old Danish student and her 28-year-old Norwegian friend were beheaded.

Opened in early March, this trial involves 24 men suspected of being linked to these murders. In the group, some are suspected of belonging to a jihadist cell. Among the accused, recalls La Tribune de Genève, 21 received sentences ranging from 5 years in prison to life imprisonment.

The anti-terrorism court in Salé mainly sentenced the three men considered to be the masterminds of this crime to death. They are a 25-year-old street vendor who had admitted to organizing the murderous expedition with two companions, a 27-year-old carpenter and a third man, aged 33, who had filmed the scene, the same source points out.

In the group is also a Hispanic-Swiss convert to Islam. He is sentenced to 20 years in prison for "forming a terrorist group", in the context of the murder of the two Scandinavian tourists, the same media specifies. Indeed, Kevin Zoller has always claimed his innocence but he was mainly accused of "having taught the main suspects to use an encrypted messaging service and of having trained them in shooting".

His lawyer, Saskia Ditisheim, has already announced that she will appeal the sentence. According to her, her client did not receive a fair trial, conducted solely on the basis of charges "that have not even been proven", in an "empty" file, without any material evidence.