Morocco tackling extremist returnees — anti-terror chief

SALE, Morocco  — Morocco is working hard to detain and place on trial citizens who have returned home after fighting for the Daesh group, the country’s anti-terror chief has told AFP.

“We have arrested and brought to justice more than 200 returnees,” Abdelhak Khiam, director of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations, said in an interview.

He said the suspects were serving sentences ranging from ten to 15 years in prison.

Legislation passed in 2015 allows police to arrest and interrogate returnees before transferring them to the judiciary, he said.

In 2015, an estimated 1,600 Moroccans had joined the ranks of extremist groups in Iraq and Syria.

“Some died in suicide operations or were shot by [international anti-Daesh] coalition forces,” Khiam said.

“Others fled to other countries.”

The North African kingdom has largely been spared extremist violence since deadly 2003 bombings in Casablanca killed 33 people.

But militants of Moroccan origin have been involved in numerous attacks in recent years in France, Belgium and Spain.

Khiam blamed a “problem of religious guidance” in European countries and said “terrorism has no nationality”.