Morocco denies torturing spy

2003-09-10 22:04

Rabat - Justice Minister Mohamed Bouzoubaa Wednesday denied that a French defendent in the Casablanca bombings case had been tortured during his interrogation, and blamed his lawyer for putting pressure on the Moroccan court.

"This lawyer should show a little more professionalism," Bouzoubaa said in an interview with Le Matin newspaper.

Vincent Courcelle-Labrousse is defending Pierre Robert, who is on trial with 33 others over the May 16 bombings in the economic capital of the north African kingdom, which killed 45 people including 12 suicide bombers.

He said last week that Robert, the alleged ringleader of the attackers, had been raped and tortured.

But Bouzoubaa contradicted the statement, telling the daily: "This individual had never said that he had been the victim of torture."

The French lawyer is supposed to keep his client's avowals secret but has "begun a strategy of defence even before his client has explained himself to the court", according to the justice minister.

Bouzoubaa also reproached Courcelle-Labrousse for having warned that his client would start a hunger strike. "This is indeed pressure and an attack on Moroccan justice," he said.

Robert has denied any involvement in the Casablanca attacks, in which booby-trapped cars exploded outside an international hotel, a Jewish cultural centre and an Italian restaurant, and suicide bombers detonated their bombs at a Spanish club and a Jewish cemetery.

The Frenchman testified on Monday that he has worked for French intelligence in the past five years, and that he had infiltrated Muslim extremist groups and spied on them for the French. - Sapa-AFP

- SAPA