RABAT, 25 November 2005 — A Moroccan prosecutor yesterday charged 18 Islamists whom police rounded up in Rabat and Casablanca this month as alleged members of a terrorist network being set up with suspected Al-Qaeda links.
Hussein Houdaya, one of the north African kingdom’s leading anti-terrorist attorneys, initially checked the identities of the 18 men and then told them of the various charges against them at a court in Sale near the capital, a judicial source said.
Police had initially announced 17 arrests that started on Nov. 11, but said the net had been widened when they dismantled a major terrorist cell and prosecuting authorities repeatedly extended the period of detention.
Police detectives showed up at the court openly carrying sealed bags of evidence against the men, who were brought from Casablanca to Sale in two armored police buses, an AFP correspondent witnessed.
Casablanca was the scene of bombings in May 2003 which took 33 lives plus those of the 12 suicide bombers. The following year there were violent incidents involving police and radicals in the cities of Meknez and Fez.
Details of the charges were not made public but a judicial source said the suspects were presented to an examining magistrate probing the case immediately after the hearing.
Announcing the arrests last Sunday, police said the network was “linked to the radical Islamic movement having connections with small groups emerging at the Iraqi border and maintaining close ties with senior members of the Al-Qaeda organization.”
The detention period prior to yesterday’s court appearance had been extended for 96 hours twice and a defense lawyer, Abdelfettah Zahrach, said the aim was to help police “complete their inquiries.” The suspects included two Moroccans formerly detained by the United States at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, Brahim Benchekroun and Mohamed Mazouz. A third former Guantanamo detaineee, Redouane Chekkouri, was released on Monday.
The authorities say the masterminds behind the alleged terrorist cell were Khalid Azig and Mohamed Reha.
Moroccan security services said they had been interested since March in the activities of Moroccan national Azig, a former theology student in Syria who made repeated trips between there and Turkey.
Azig returned to Morocco in June and was joined by Reha, who has Belgian nationality, on Sept. 29, in order to recruit members for a terrorist cell, according to a statement from the security services.
