Suspect in Fatal Stabbing of French Tourist in Morocco Committed to Psychiatric Care

The French victim was 79 years old and lived a good part of the year in a campsite near Tiznit. She was stabbed with a knife in a municipal market in the city last Saturday. The suspect, Ali Boujouham, is 31 years old. It was the cameras of a commercial store that allowed the police to trace the suspect, who fled the scene after committing his crime. He then attacked other tourists on the Agadir coast, injuring a Belgian woman who was transferred to intensive care, but whose life is no longer in danger.

He was arrested a few hours after this last attack. The judicial police opened an investigation to determine the motive for the crime. It turned out that Ali Boujouham, who has a clean criminal record, had already spent a month in a psychiatric hospital following a suicide attempt.

During his interrogation, Ali Boujouham stated that it was "Iblîs" (the devil) who asked him to commit the two crimes. He also claimed that his acts were dictated to him by occult forces.

These elements led the investigating judge at the annex of the Salé Court of Appeal (anti-terrorism jurisdiction) to order his internment in a psychiatric hospital. While the Moroccan justice system is trying to ensure the mental health of the accused, France announced on Wednesday the opening of an investigation for "murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise". On Thursday, the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office also announced the opening of an investigation for "attempted murder in a terrorist context" due to the attack on the Belgian national in Agadir.