Moroccan man's 'terror' death sentence commuted: lawyer

A Moroccan man stripped five years ago of his dual Danish nationality and sentenced to death last year on "terrorism" charges will instead serve 25 years in jail, his lawyer said Thursday.

Said Mansour, 59, was convicted by a Moroccan court in October of forming a criminal gang, attempted voluntary homicide and attempted destruction of public goods with explosives, lawyer Khalil Idrissi told AFP. 

The reduction of his sentence was issued by the court of appeal in Casablanca, the lawyer said.

Denmark, which had already convicted Mansour on several "terrorism" related charges before stripping him of his Danish nationality in 2015, agreed to extradite him two years ago on condition that he would not face the death penalty. 

According to Moroccan media, his conviction in Morocco last year was for his role in attacks in Casablanca in 2003 that killed 33 people.

But according to his lawyer, the formal charge sheet made no mention of those attacks. 

The Moroccan justice system does not publish its rulings, leaving media largely reliant on legal sources for such information. 

Mansour's sentence was commuted in late December, Idrissi said.

Mansour had insisted he had nothing to do with the Casablanca attacks, in a statement issued by an organisation that defends Salafist prisoners.

At the time of the Casablanca attacks, he still lived in Denmark, where he managed an Islamic publishing house.

He was convicted in 2007 in Denmark after disseminating jihadist propaganda, in the form of thousands of videos between June 2002 and September 2005, resulting in a three-and-half-year prison term on the charge of being a "terrorism apologist".

Mansour was stripped of his Danish nationality in mid-2015 in the wake of another conviction there, again in relation to inciting or being an apologist for "terrorism". 

Morocco had sought his extradition on the basis of two alleged jihadists accusing him of sending them publications by Algerian and Libyan "terrorist" organisations, his lawyer said.

Danish media have reported that European intelligence services had placed him under surveillance in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US, due to suspected links to Al-Qaeda.

Agencies contributed to this report.