Date: Dec 23, 2018
Source: The Daily Star
Nine arrested in Morocco over murder
Reuters
OSLO/RABAT: Moroccan police have arrested nine more people in an investigation into the murder of two Scandinavian female tourists by suspected Daesh (ISIS) militants, authorities said Friday. Four suspects were already under arrest over the killing of Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, from Denmark, and Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway, whose bodies were found Monday in the Atlas Mountains with knife wounds to the neck.

The North African country’s Central Bureau for Judicial Investigations said nine further arrests were made in various Moroccan cities over suspected links to the killers.

It said electronic devices, an unauthorized hunting rifle, knives and materials that could be used for bomb-making were found in the course of the raids.

Moroccan authorities have said the four suspects first arrested over the murder had pledged allegiance to Daesh in a video posted on social media before the killings.

In Norway, police said a separate video, purportedly showing the killings of the two tourists, was probably authentic.

Further technical analysis of the video was needed, Norway’s National Crime Investigation Service said earlier Friday.

“We still believe, however, that we have grounds to say that so far, there is nothing concrete to show that this video is not real,” it said in a statement.

Danish counterparts said they were still analyzing the video, while Moroccan authorities said Thursday they are working on authenticating it. Jespersen and Ueland were killed on the way to Toubkal, North Africa’s highest peak and a popular hiking destination. A source from Imlil, the village near where the two friends were killed, said one of them was found dead inside their tent while the body of the other was found outside.