RABAT: A Morocco prosecutor on Thursday brought seven new suspects including a Spanish-Swiss man before a Rabat anti-terror judge in connection with the murder of two Scandinavian women in the Atlas Mountains.
The prosecution asked that the suspects be investigated for “forming a gang to prepare and carry out terrorist acts, premeditated assistance to perpetrators of terrorist acts and training people to join a terrorist organization,” Rabat’s attorney general said.
The prosecutor called on the judge to place the suspects in pre-trial detention.
Danish student Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, and 28-year-old Norwegian Maren Ueland were found dead at an isolated hiking spot south of Marrakesh on December 17.
The two women were beheaded, authorities have said.
Fifteen people, including the four main suspects, were brought before the judge on Sunday over their alleged links to the double homicide, labelled a “terrorist” act by Rabat.
The Spanish-Swiss man in Thursday’s group had been living in Morocco and was detained in Marrakesh over alleged links to some of the suspects.
He subscribed to “extremist ideology,” according to Morocco’s central office for judicial investigations.
The four main suspects were also arrested in Marrakesh and belonged to a cell inspired by Daesh ideology, Morocco’s counter-terror chief Abdelhak Khiam told AFP.
None of the four had contact with Daesh members in Syria or Iraq, he said.
The head of the suspected cell is 25-year-old street vendor Abdessamad Ejjoud, according to investigators.
He was identified in a video filmed a week before the double-murder, in which the four main suspects pledged allegiance to Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, according to authorities.
The killings have shaken Norway, Denmark and Morocco. Another video circulated on social networks allegedly showed the murder of one of the tourists.
Morocco, which relies heavily on tourism income, suffered an extremist attack in 2011, when a bomb blast at a cafe in Marrakesh’s famed Jamaa El Fna Square killed 17 people, mostly European tourists.
An attack in the North African state’s financial capital Casablanca killed 33 people in 2003.
7 new suspects brought before Morocco judge in slain hikers case
7 new suspects brought before Morocco judge in slain hikers case
- Danish student Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, and 28-year-old Norwegian Maren Ueland were found dead at an isolated hiking spot south of Marrakesh on December 17
- The two women were beheaded, authorities have said.
Over 9,350 Palestinians held in Israeli detention as of January
- Detainees include 53 women and girls, 2 of whom are minors, and around 350 children held in Megiddo and Ofer prisons
- Total number of administrative detainees is 3,385, while those classified by Israel as ‘unlawful combatants’ amount to 1,237
LONDON: The number of Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers has surpassed 9,350 as of early January 2026, according to reports from Palestinian prisoners’ organizations.
According to the institutions, based on data released by the Israeli Prison Service, the detainees include 53 women and girls, two of whom are minors, and around 350 children held in Megiddo and Ofer prisons.
The total number of administrative detainees is 3,385, while those classified by Israel as “unlawful combatants” amount to 1,237. This figure does not account for all detainees from Gaza held in Israeli military camps under this classification, which also includes a few Arab detainees from Lebanon and Syria.
Prisoners’ institutions reported that approximately 50 percent of detainees are held without charges, either under administrative detention or classified as “unlawful combatants” by Israel.
Administrative detainees account for over 36 percent of all Palestinians in Israeli prisons. The classifications of administrative detention and “unlawful combatants” permit the indefinite detention of individuals without charge in military detention centers.
