Suspects deny link with Robert
2003-09-11 08:50
Rabat - Nine alleged accomplices of Pierre Robert, who is on trial here for allegedly leading a Muslim extremist cell involved in suicide bombings in Casablanca, denied in court on Wednesday that they had any links with the French national or an Islamic terrorist group.
Robert and 33 alleged accomplices face charges over the May 16 bombings, which killed 45 people including 12 suicide bombers in the economic capital of the north African kingdom.
The nine who appeared in court on Wednesday denied all knowledge of the Salafia Jihadia Muslim extremist group which authorities have named as the main terrorist network in Morocco.
"These are stories, a piece of theatre. The police and the prosecutors have written whatever they like - I swear in the name of god that I was tortured," said one of the defendants, Mustapha el Ayat, adding, like many of his co-accused that he had been forced to sign a "confession" which he had not even read.
He was the only one of the nine who admitted having met Robert, but said this was just a single dinner meeting and that he hadn't even been aware that the Frenchman had converted to Islam.
Raped and tortured
The nine denied any participation in the preparation of terrorist acts.
Vincent Courcelle-Labrousse, who is defending Robert, said last week that the Frenchman, the alleged ringleader of the attackers, had been raped and tortured during his interrogation.
Justice Minister Mohamed Bouzoubaa denied the accusations on Wednesday and blamed the 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.
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.
The trial of the nine alleged accomplices continued in an overnight court session at the Rabat criminal court.