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'Suicide bomber' teens in court

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  • 'Suicide bomber' teens in court

    'Suicide bomber' teens in court

    Three teenage girls, including twin sisters, are due to appear in a Moroccan court later on Friday charged with planning suicide attacks in the capital, Rabat.

    Iman and Sanaa Laghrisse and their friend Hakima Rejlane, all aged 14, are the youngest suspects so far in a series of trials targeting Islamists in the wake of the bombings in Casablanca in May that killed 45 people.

    The announcement of their arrest earlier this month caused a sensation here.

    The fact that girls so young were apparently prepared to die for the cause of Islamic extremism added a new dimension to the trauma Morocco has been suffering since the attacks.

    Desperation

    The information that has filtered out about the girls since has provoked both pity and fear.

    According to the police, they were planning to carry out a suicide attack on a supermarket that sells alcohol in Rabat.

    The alleged plot apparently came to light when they asked their local imam, or Islamic preacher, if he would give his official blessing with a fatwa.

    It has been reported that the girls come from a broken home, had been living in poverty with little education and may have been forced into prostitution.

    The police say the girls came increasingly under the influence of Islamists as they tried to find a way out of their desperate situation.

    The prosecution case seems likely to focus on the girls' alleged manipulation by Islamic extremists.

    Clampdown

    They are tried as part of a larger group the police say was planning other attacks in Rabat.

    More than 1,000 suspected Islamic extremists have been arrested since the Casablanca bombings.

    The vast majority of them have been accused of plotting other attacks.

    Human rights groups here have expressed their concern about the trials of these suspects, saying the police evidence has not been sufficiently tested in court.

    http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3141694.stm
    "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."
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