RABAT: Morocco’s prison service said on Tuesday that a man sentenced to death over the 2018 beheadings of two Scandinavian women hikers had killed himself in his cell.
“This morning, (the prisoner) at Oujda prison committed suicide,” the General Directorate for Prisons said in a statement.
He had used a piece of cloth ripped from his clothes and tied it to the window, it added.
Prosecutors and the inmate’s family had been immediately informed, it said.
Four defendants were sentenced to death for the murders of 24-year-old Dane Louisa Vesterager Jespersen and 28-year-old Norwegian Maren Ueland in the High Atlas mountains, a case that shocked all three countries.
A prison official confirmed that the man who killed himself was Abderrahim Khayali, 36, who was arrested in Marrakesh hours after the women’s bodies were found.
He had left the other men before they murdered the women, and later told the court that he had left out of “regret.”
But he was found guilty of trying to help the men flee.
Khayali had also appeared alongside the killers in a video in which all four pledged allegiance to Daesh.
He was originally sentenced to life in prison but the sentence was changed to execution after he appealed.
Although the death penalty remains legal in Morocco, there have been no executions there since 1993 because of a moratorium, and the issue of capital punishment is a matter of political debate.
Morocco has been largely spared deadly extremist acts since attacks in Casablanca that killed 33 people in 2003 and one in Marrakesh in 2011 that left 17 people dead.
Moroccan jailed over tourist murders kills himself: Authorities
https://arab.news/gfsnf
Moroccan jailed over tourist murders kills himself: Authorities
- A prison official confirmed the man who killed himself was Abderrahim Khayali, 36, who was arrested in Marrakesh hours after the women’s bodies were found
Israel’s Netanyahu says it would be a ‘mistake’ to hold elections now
- Failure to pass the budget by March 31 would trigger early elections
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that holding elections now would be a “mistake,” as he faces the possibility of a snap vote should he fail to pass a national budget.
The budget will have its first reading on Wednesday in Israel’s parliament, where Netanyahu’s coalition is only able to exercise a majority thanks to the uncertain cooperation of a former ally.
“Of course I’m concerned... I think we’re in a very sensitive situation,” Netanyahu said at a televised press conference.
Failure to pass the budget by March 31 would trigger early elections.
“I think the last thing we need right now is elections. We’ll have elections later on this year, but I think it’s a mistake to have them now” he said.
Elections are due to be held by November.
The leader of Likud, Israel’s main right-wing party, Netanyahu holds the record for the longest time served as Israel’s premier — more than 18 years in total over several stints since 1996 — and has already said he intends to run again.
In the last elections, Likud won 32 seats in the Knesset, its ultra-Orthodox allies 18, and a far-right alliance 14.
Some of Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox allies formally left his government last year, but for now refuse to bring it down.
However, they are reluctant to vote for the budget until the premier makes good on a promise to pass a law allowing their community to avoid military conscription.
Netanyahu’s current term began with a controversial judicial overhaul plan that sparked months of mass protests, with tens of thousands of Israelis taking to the streets almost daily.
