The Criminal Court (1st degree) has decided to postpone the trial of 19 terror suspects, members of the fundamentalist Salafia Jihadia movement.
The court, which postponed the trial to April 21, also decided to free Moncef Zaitouni, one of the 19 accused who include seven minors, MAP news agency reported.
The accusations levelled at the suspects include “endangering national security, theft, embezzlement, illegal arms possession, creating a criminal gang and planning terrorist acts.”
The presumed terrorists are also accused of belonging to non-recognised associations and organising non-authorised public meetings.
The decision to postpone the cases came following a request made by the suspects' lawyers who asked for more time to prepare the defense.
The court said in a release that the suspects were “indoctrinated” by the Salafia Jihadia, which calls for action against the regime and preaches violence as a means for change.
The release added that the cell to which the suspects belonged had designed their plans on the basis of ideas permitting illegal actions like theft, violence and recruiting new people to reinforce their activities.
Three years after the May 16 terrorist attacks that struck the city of Casablanca, the Moroccan intelligence services are still investigating terrorist activities. Dozens of presumed terrorists were arrested in various cities of Morocco, where the "Salafia Jihadia" network was able to establish its secret cells.
Ten people have been killed and 17 injured early Friday in a collision between a bus and a truck in southern Morocco. There have been several such crashes in recent months and it is hoped that authorities will take action to cut down the accident rate.
The accident occurred around 1:00 am (0100 GMT) near Argana on a notorious stretch of road linking Agadir and Marrakesh. The truck driver was believed to have been drunk at the time of the collision, local officials said.
According to another report, the truck's driver fled the scene but police caught him and held him for questioning after finding he had been drinking, the official news agency MAP reported, citing the Marrakesh state prosecutor.
Morocco launched a road safety campaign two years ago after it was estimated that around 10 people died every day in road accidents.
Thousands of Muslims on Friday took to the streets in the Spanish-occupied Moroccan northern city of Sebta to denounce racism against the Muslim community during a festival that had been organized lately.
Some 10,000 demonstrators, "almost all Muslims" according to the organizers, chanted "for coexistence, against racism."
The Muslim community in the two Spanish-occupied Moroccan northern cities of Sebta and Mellila was outraged by a racist and hateful song wording composed and sung by local police part of their annual Carnival.
The Muslim community in Spain-occupied city of Sebta is extremely shocked as the racist and fascist song was awarded for best wording.
The demo organizers read a manifesto, which calls on the city governor, Jesus Vivas, to "make excuses to all the city inhabitants, notably Muslims" and retrieve the prize granted to the racist "song."
The song composed by a local policeman makes no distinction between animals, and Arabs and Muslims (namely Turks). Moreover, the song regrets that in Holocaust "Hitler did bad by exterminating Jews instead of Muslims."
The Sebta main opposition Democratic Union party, which includes three Muslim representatives in the local assembly, lodged a complaint and intends to sue the band members for “genocide apologia, xenophobia and racism.”
The political formation also stressed the risk the song represents for the peace of the different communities living together and denounced the silence of authorities.
Up to now, no entitled authority condemned the song in Spain, nor did the Spanish media, except for “ABC” daily. There is one news story saying the award has been taken from the group, but The View From Fez could not yet confirm that.
Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news
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