Three teenagers charged in the Casablanca explosions which took place in the areas of Sidi Moumen and Hay El Farah on March 11th and April 10th, 2007 were sentenced on Monday June 9 to jail terms ranging between 10 and 15 years.
They are accused of being accomplices of the kamikaze bombers who detonated their bombs in the Casablanca suburbs killing and wounding several people.
The first terrorist act killed one person and wounded four others on March 11, 2007, when a cybercafe was bombed in the district of Sidi Moumen, Casablanca. The second attack occured April 10, 2007, when three terrorists blew themselves up, leaving several dead and injured.
Their lawyers protested against the prison terms arguing that they were too heavy in relation to the age of the culprits.
Morocco, just like Algeria, is considered to be one of the strongholds of the Al Qaida Maghreb terrorists, who have been targeting western interests in North Africa.
The three terrorists are natives of Sidi Moumen, a shanty known as the fief of potential islamist terrorists and also considered among some of the poorest areas of Casablanca.
Analysts say that poverty in the Maghreb is to blame for the rise of teenagers resorting to terrorism as an expression against a system they deem unfair.
