Moroccan 'bombers' sentenced
11/03/2008 09:52  - (SA)  

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Sale - Three Moroccan slum dwellers implicated in a plot to bomb the port of Casablanca, a military barracks and police stations were sentenced to between 10 and 15 years in prison on Monday, the government said.

Youssef Khoudri, the accomplice of suspected gang leader Abdelfattah Raydi who blew himself up on March 11 last year to avoid arrest, was jailed for 15 years. Raydi's brother Othman and Abdelhadi Raibi both received 10-year prison sentences.

The three, who were minors when arrested, were jailed by a youth court in Sale near Rabat on terrorism-related charges including forming a criminal gang, helping make explosives, holding unauthorised meetings and collecting funds to finance terrorism, the government said.

Security sources said Abdelfattah Raydi led a ring of more than 50 radical Islamists who planned to attack a quayside at the bustling port of Casablanca, a barracks in the city and several police stations.

'I was under influence of drugs'

The authorities detained more than 40 suspects after he blew himself up in an Internet cafe in a poor Casablanca suburb. The cafe's manager had tried to stop him viewing jihadist websites.

Khoudri was also carrying a suicide belt and was injured in the blast before police arrested him. He told prosecutors he was under the influence of drugs at the time.

Defence lawyer Mohamed Ben Sahraoui said: "These sentences were very harsh, especially when you consider that all three were being judged as minors. We respect the court's decision, but we intend to appeal."

A month after the web cafe blast, police raided a safe house in another popular quarter of Morocco's largest city. Three men including another of Raydi's brothers, Ayoub, detonated explosive belts, killing themselves and a police officer and wounding more than 20 people.

Most of those arrested came from slum neighbourhoods that encircled Casablanca, where joblessness and poverty bred despair and frustration among the young, many of whom dreamt of immigrating to Europe.

- Reuters

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