Posted on 09/19/2003 9:44:21 AM PDT by knighthawk
Frenchman Pierre Robert has received a life prison term for plotting terrorist attacks in Morocco.
Rabat's criminal court found him guilty of charges of preparing terrorist acts, possessing weapons and endangering state security.
Robert's trial was part of investigations into the May 16 suicide bombings in Casablanca that claimed 45 lives.
Robert and his 33 co-defendants were each given the right to a "last word" before the five judges began 12 hours of deliberations earlier on Thursday, local time.
Two of his co-accused also received life terms, for the murder of a woman in Tangiers.
Only two of the accused were acquitted while the rest received jail terms ranging from three months to 30 years.
The prosecution says 18 of the co-defendants had acknowledged Robert as their Islamist leader, identifying him as the "emir" or commander of their group.
The group was plotting attacks against targets including a casino in Tangiers as well as a supermarket in the northern city, which if successful could have been even more devastating than the Casablanca attacks, the prosecutor said in his summing up.
The prosecutor had sought the death penalty against Robert, 31, and 11 of the others in connection with charges of plotting attacks on sites in Tangiers, Fez, Rabat and Meknes, not directly in connection with the Casablanca attacks.
Robert's French lawyer, Vincent Courcelle-Labrousse, expressed relief the death penalty had not been imposed but announced that he and his Moroccan colleague considered the sentence to be harsh and would do all they could to alleviate or overturn it - including seeking a royal reprieve.
They have eight days to appeal.
A Franco-Moroccan judicial convention signed in 1981 makes it possible that Robert could eventually serve out his sentence in France.
However, a judicial source said such a request may not be granted in cases of acts against state security.
Justice Minister Mohamed Bouzoubaa said earlier this month more than 900 suspected Islamic extremists have been arrested in Morocco since the May 16 suicide attacks in Casablanca.
"There is still danger," he said, added "the main suspects [in the attacks] have either been arrested or sentenced, or are currently on trial".
In five nearly simultaneous attacks on the evening of May 16, booby-trapped cars exploded outside an international hotel, a Jewish cultural centre and an Italian restaurant, and suicide bombers detonated their bombs at a Spanish club and an abandoned Jewish cemetery, all in downtown Casablanca.
Moroccan investigators concluded that the attacks in Casablanca were organised by Salafia Jihadia, which mainly recruits among residents of poor suburbs in cities such as Casablanca, but they have not ruled out participation by international groups.
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