RABAT, Morocco (AP) — A Moroccan convicted of belonging to an Islamic State-affiliated ring and sentenced to death for the beheadings of two Scandinavian vacationers has killed himself in jail, Moroccan officers stated.
The ability the place he was held within the jap metropolis of Oujda stated in an announcement that workers discovered his physique early Tuesday.
The prisoner was amongst convicted ring members jailed in 2019 over the grotesque killings of two younger Scandinavian ladies, Louisa Vesterager Jespersen from Denmark and Maren Ueland from Norway. They had been killed in December 2018 whereas on a backpacking journey within the Atlas Mountains, close to town of Marrakech.
The killings had been recorded on video and posted on-line. They despatched shockwaves by way of Morocco and raised issues in regards to the rising risk of Islamist extremism in North Africa and past.
A Moroccan court docket convicted three males of terrorism and sentenced them to loss of life, and a fourth suspect who fled the scene was given life in jail. The court docket additionally handed jail phrases to 19 individuals convicted as accomplices.