Morocco: investigation after the murder of a French tourist in Rabat

The Moroccan prosecutor's office decided on Thursday to open a judicial investigation against a man suspected of having murdered a French tourist near Rabat, we learned from a judicial source.

The suspect, of Moroccan nationality, is suspected of "voluntary homicide" and "attempted murder", this source told AFP.

He had been arrested and placed in police custody after the assault on Monday, with stones, of a couple of French tourists in Moulay Bousselham, a seaside resort located in the province of Kenitra, near Rabat.

The 82-year-old woman died of a head injury before arriving at the hospital while her husband, also in his 80s, was hospitalized in stable condition in Rabat.

According to the local gendarmerie, the man arrested showed "signs of mental imbalance". He was taken into custody. The investigating judge will be responsible for determining the motive for the crime.

The French are by far the most numerous foreign tourists to visit Morocco (nearly 4.5 million in 2019, before the Covid pandemic).

On January 15, a 79-year-old French tourist was stabbed to death in a market in Tiznit, near Agadir, in southern Morocco.

The Moroccan justice had ruled out the terrorist track, concluding that the murderer was not criminally responsible because of "mental disorders" and ordering his internment in a psychiatric hospital.