Morocco has arrested five youth members of the premier’s Islamist
party who allegedly celebrated last week’s murder of the Russian
ambassador to Turkey, a party source said Thursday.
Authorities arrested the five from the youth movement of Prime
Minister Abdelilah Benkirane’s Justice and Development Party (PJD), the
source said, after the assassination of Andrei Karlov on December 19.
The Akhbar Al-Yaoum daily reported a sixth person had been called in for questioning.
The PJD, whose leader has been tasked with forming a new governing
coalition after winning October parliamentary polls, has yet to comment
on the arrests.
But the head of the party’s lawyer association, Abdessamad al-Idrissi, said he would be defending those detained.
Under Moroccan law, the crime of justifying terrorist acts can be
punished by up to six years in prison and more than $19 000 in fines.
On December 22, the justice and interior ministries said they were
opening an investigation after a group of people “clearly celebrated on
social media the assassination of the Russian ambassador in Turkey”.
In early December, Benkirane caused a diplomatic stir by criticising
Russia’s military intervention in Syria in support of President Bashar
al-Assad’s regime.
After Moscow’s envoy in Rabat expressed concern over the comments,
Morocco’s foreign ministry slammed the premier’s remarks and said it
respected Russia’s role in Syria.