The New York Times
By Aida Alami
From left, Rachid Afati, Younes Ouziad and Abdessamad Al Joud have been sentenced to death today for the murder of Louisa Vesterager Jespersen and Maren Ueland.
CreditCreditAgence France-Presse — Getty Images
Maren Ueland, 28, of Norway and Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, of Denmark, were discovered dead at their campsite in a remote part of the Atlas Mountains in December 2018 with wounds to their necks. The incident was labeled by Moroccan authorities as a terror attack after some of the men involved pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
The men were tried under an antiterrorism law and were the main defendants in a case that put two dozen suspects on trial over the women’s deaths last year.
Following a seven-month trial, Abdessamad Al Joud, Younes Ouziad and Rachid Afati were sentenced to death, while a fourth man, Abderahman Khayali, was handed a life sentence, according to Moroccan state television.
Twenty others were handed sentences ranging from five to 30 years, in the killings of the two European tourists. Both women had been studying in Norway to become tour guides. Their bodies were found at a site that often is the starting point for treks to Mount Toubkal, North Africa’s highest peak.
In a gruesome clip, posted on social media shortly after the attack, one of the victims could be heard screaming while a man cut her neck with a knife.
Hours before the ruling, in a room packed with national and international news outlets and the victims’ families, some of the killers asked mercy from God but none expressed remorse, according to local news reports. Others vowed they were innocent of the charges against them.
