A Moroccan, sentenced in France for his participation in a deadly attack in the tourist town of Marrakech in 1994, was handed over to the Moroccan authorities, AFP learned on Friday (October 29th) from the General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) in Morocco.
Abdelilah Ziyad, known as "
Rachid
", 63, "
was expelled Wednesday from France and presented before an investigating judge
", an official of the DGSN told AFP, without specifying the charges against him.
Read also Pierre Vermeren: "Despite the defeat of the Islamists in the legislative elections, Morocco is far from having turned the page on political Islam"
According to local media, Abdelilah Ziyad, sentenced in absentia in 1984 to criminal imprisonment in Morocco, has since been released due to a statute of limitations.
It was not possible to confirm this information from a Moroccan judicial source.
The 60-year-old Moroccan was sentenced in January 1997 by a French court to eight years in prison for having ordered a bomb attack against the luxury hotel Atlas-Asni in Marrakech in which two Spanish tourists died on August 24, 1994.
The attack attributed to the Algerian secret services
This attack - the first of its kind on Moroccan soil - had caused a serious crisis between Rabat and Algiers. Following the attack, which the Moroccans attributed to the Algerian secret services, Rabat introduced a compulsory visa for Algerian visitors. In retaliation, Algeria decided to close its land border with Morocco.
Activist of the Moroccan Islamist Youth Movement (MJIM), an opposition group, Abdelilah Ziyad was considered the “
emir
” of the “
Marrakech network
”, made up of around thirty members, one of the first organized Islamist terrorist networks. in France, in the Paris region and around Orléans (south of Paris).
During the network's trial in Paris, he admitted to being the recruiter, organizer and orderer of the terrorist group recruited with the aim of carrying the “
holy war
” to Morocco during the summer of 1994.