Moroccan authorities said they had charged 16 men in connection with suicide bombings which killed dozens of people in Casablanca this month.
A group of seven men charged on Friday had been "directly involved" in the five almost simultaneous bombings on May 16, state prosecutor Moulay Abdellah Alaoui Belghiti said.
He suggested the group was a "reserve team" of suicide bombers, according to the official MAP news agency.
A group of six men were charged in Casablanca on Wednesday and three on Monday -- including two men whom the authorities say were assigned to targets but fled without detonating their bombs.
Thirty-one people were killed in the attacks as well as the 12 suicide bombers. The targets included a Spanish restaurant, the five-star Farah Hotel, and a Jewish community centre.
Belghiti said all the accused face the same charges which include formation of a criminal band, attacking the internal security of the state, and premeditated murder.
On Wednesday Belghiti said the alleged mastermind of the bombings, known as Abdelhaq or `Moul Sebbat', had died in custody, two days after he was arrested, from chronic heart and liver disease.
Moroccan authorities say the attacks were carried out by a small Islamic group, Assirat al-Moustaquim (The Righteous Path), based in a poor Casablanca neighborhood.
Government officials say the suicide bombers had links with international terrorism but say they will only give details once investigations are complete.
Meanwhile, a local official from Morocco's Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) was arrested under suspicion of having had prior knowledge of the deadly terror attacks, the interior ministry said Saturday.
The suspect, Younes Ousalah, is treasurer of a section of the PJD in Sidi Taiebi, an area considered to be an Islamic stronghold.
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
Counting was under way in Nepal yesterday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country’s leadership following protests last year that toppled the government. Key figures vying for power include former Nepalese prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, who is bidding for the youth vote, and newly elected Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa. In Kathmandu’s tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up — suggesting Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead. Nepalese Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane said the counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner”
RSS