Morocco: 3 ISIS-affiliated Suspects Arrested in Murder of Policeman

A member of Morocco's Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ) - affiliated with internal intelligence - before the Bureau’s headquarters in Sale. (MAP)
A member of Morocco's Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ) - affiliated with internal intelligence - before the Bureau’s headquarters in Sale. (MAP)
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Morocco: 3 ISIS-affiliated Suspects Arrested in Murder of Policeman

A member of Morocco's Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ) - affiliated with internal intelligence - before the Bureau’s headquarters in Sale. (MAP)
A member of Morocco's Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ) - affiliated with internal intelligence - before the Bureau’s headquarters in Sale. (MAP)

Casablanca judicial police arrested Wednesday three extremists affiliated with ISIS for their alleged involvement in the murder of a policeman while on duty.

The arrest was carried out in coordination between the national brigade of the judicial police and the General Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DGST).

A statement from the Directorate General of National Security (DGSN) said operations resulted in the arrest of the two main suspects in Casablanca and in the Sidi Hrazem region, near Fez, while the third defendant was apprehended in another aid in Casablanca.

The suspects have recently pledged allegiance to the alleged emir of ISIS and were planning to participate in a terrorist plot to underminee public order, according to the initial investigation.

They had decided to attack a police officer in order to execute him and take his weapon with the intention of robbing a bank.

The investigations have shown that the first two suspects were responsible for the execution of the police officer and the mutilation of his body.

The suspects captured the police officer while on duty, they assaulted him with a knife and stole his vehicle and his weapon, before burning his body in a rural area.

During search operations, the knife used in this attack was found and the victim’s handcuffs and gun were recovered.

Investigations are ongoing to identify possible accomplices, added the statement.



Cyprus Says Syria Will Take Back Citizens Trying to Reach the Mediterranean Island by Boat

Migrants stand behind a fence inside a refugee camp in Kokkinotrimithia outside of capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Friday, Feb. 5, 2021. (AP)
Migrants stand behind a fence inside a refugee camp in Kokkinotrimithia outside of capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Friday, Feb. 5, 2021. (AP)
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Cyprus Says Syria Will Take Back Citizens Trying to Reach the Mediterranean Island by Boat

Migrants stand behind a fence inside a refugee camp in Kokkinotrimithia outside of capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Friday, Feb. 5, 2021. (AP)
Migrants stand behind a fence inside a refugee camp in Kokkinotrimithia outside of capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Friday, Feb. 5, 2021. (AP)

Syria has agreed to take back any of its citizens intercepted trying to reach Cyprus by boat, the Mediterranean island nation's deputy minister for migration said Monday.

Nicholas Ioannides says two inflatable boats, each carrying 30 Syrians, were already turned back in recent days in line with a bilateral search and rescue agreement that Cyprus and Syria now have in place.

Officials didn't share further details about the agreement.

Cypriot navy and police patrol boats intercepted the two vessels on May 9th and 10th after they put out a call for help. They were outside Cypriot territorial waters but within the island's search and rescue area of responsibility, a government statement said. They were subsequently escorted back to a port in the Syrian city of Tartus.

Ioannides told private TV station Antenna there’s been an uptick of boatloads of migrants trying to reach Cyprus from Syria, unlike in recent years when vessels would primarily depart from Lebanon. Cyprus and Lebanon have a long-standing agreement to send back migrants.

He said Cypriot authorities and their Syrian counterparts are trying to fight back against human traffickers who are supplying an underground market for laborers.

According to Ioannides, traffickers apparently cut deals with local employers to bring in Syrian laborers who pick up work right away, despite laws that prevent asylum-seekers from working before the completion of a nine-month residency period.

“The message we’re sending is that the Cyprus Republic won’t tolerate the abuse of the asylum system from people who aren’t eligible for either asylum or international protection and just come here only to work,” Ioannides said.

The bilateral agreement is compounded by the Cypriot government’s decision last week not to automatically grant asylum to Syrian migrants, but to examine their applications individually on merit and according to international and European laws.

From a total of 19,000 pending asylum applications, 13,000 have been filed by Syrian nationals, according to figures quoted by Ioannides.

Since Assad was toppled in December last year and a new transitional government took power, some 2,300 Syrians have either dropped their asylum claims or rescinded their international protection status, while 2,100 have already departed Cyprus for Syria.

Both the United Nations refugee agency and Europe’s top human rights body have urged the Cyprus government to stop pushing back migrants trying to reach the island by boat. Cyprus strongly denies it’s committing any pushbacks according to its definition.