PJD Leader Faces Court in 1993 Student Murder Case

The events took place in February 1993 at the Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Fès, where violent clashes between leftist and Islamist students took place. In the aftermath, the student Benaissa Aït El Jid and his comrade Haddioui El Khammar had transmitted the student demands to the dean of the university. Then, these two students got into a taxi heading for the Lirak district. They will not reach their destination without incident. Their vehicle was stoned and stopped by about thirty individuals. Violently assaulted, immobilized and then struck on the head by a curb, Aït El Jid succumbed to his injuries a few days later. A trial opened in 1993. Several defendants, including Abdelali Hamieddine and the witness Haddioui El Khammar, were sentenced to two years in prison.

In 2016, a new twist. Haddioui El Khammar incriminates two other students and accuses the PJD leader of having immobilized Ait EL Jid on the ground and of having thus directly participated in his assassination. The investigating judge then decides to prosecute Abdelali Hamieddine for complicity in voluntary homicide. Islamists residing in the Sidi Brahim district near the Dahr El Mahrez university campus also accuse Hamieddine of complicity in the murder of this left-wing student. A trial opens this Tuesday before the Court of Appeal of Fès. The victim’s family only asks for one thing: "to reveal the ins and outs of the assassination of their son and to punish all the individuals involved in this odious crime," said the Arabic-language daily Al Ahdath Al Maghribia.