Three extremists who beheaded two women in the Atlas mountains,
Morocco, have been sentenced to death by firing squad. Louisa Vesterager
Jespersen, 24, from Denmark, and Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway, were both found
dead on December 17 last year.
They had pitched up in a ‘remote mountainous region’ 6.2 miles
away from the village of Imlil, at the foot of Mount Toubkal, when they were
killed in their tent.
Today ringleader Abdessamed Ejjoud, Younes Ouaziyad, 27, and
Rachid Affati, 33, received the maximum penalty for their murders.
The group, who pledge allegiance to the Islamic State, previously
admitted filming themselves killing the women before posting the footage
online.
They were described by authorities as ‘lone wolves’ who did
not coordinate the killings with the Islamic State.
Prosecutors had previously demanded the death penalty for the men,
while social media petitions similarly called for their execution.
Helle Petersen, mother of Ms Jespersen, told the court in a
letter: ‘The most just thing would be to give these beasts the death penalty
they deserve.’
Today, prosecutors described Ejjoud, Ouaziyad and Affati as
‘bloodthirsty monsters’.
Khalid El Kerdoudi told the jury in his closing arguments: ‘We
can’t be lenient toward these human beasts.’
The court heard that an autopsy report had found 23 injuries on Ms
Jespersen’s body and seven on that of Ms Ueland.
Ejjoud, an underground imam, had confessed at a previous hearing
to beheading one of the women with Ouaziyad, while Afatti videoed the attack.
They had also planned attacks on synagogues and churches, they
said.
The defence team argued there were ‘mitigating circumstances on
account of their precarious social conditions and psychological disequilibrium’.
The men were described as having a ‘very low’ level of education
and had come from modest backgrounds, it was said. Morocco has had a freeze on
executions since 1993.
Source: Metro
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