Thursday night, the Criminal Trial Chamber in charge of terrorism cases in the Court of Appeal of Salé has sentenced 27 persons charged with terrorist acts to up to 20 years in prison.
These individuals were arrested in November after security services dismantled an active cell that recruited and indoctrinated Moroccan youth with Al-Qaeda ideologies in order to send them to fight in the Sahel region.
Mustapaha El Kadaoui, the number one suspect, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and a fine of 500,000 dirhams, after being convicted of “forming a criminal gang to prepare and commit terrorist acts that will disturb public order, financing and funding terrorism, inciting others to commit a terrorist act, being a member of a banned religious group and holding meetings without authorization”.
Six other individuals were sentenced to 5 years in prison, seven other were sentenced to 3 years and 12 other individuals received a sentence of 2 years.
The Moroccan Times.
