20120310
AFP
A Moroccan appeal court confirmed a death sentence Friday against the mastermind of the April 2011 Marrakesh bombing that killed 17 people, and handed a death sentence to one of the others convicted.

The chief judge of the court confirmed the death sentence against Adil Al-Atmani, the mastermind of the bombings, in which 17 people -- Moroccans, French and Swiss nationals -- were killed and dozens more wounded.

And it converted the life term handed down to his chief accomplice Hakim Dah to a death sentence.

The court also increased the jail sentences against six of the other men convicted at the original trial in October from six to 10 years and confirmed a two-year sentence against a ninth man.

The appeal trial went ahead after the prosecutors appealed the original sentences.

The appeal court sentences were in some respects harsher than what the prosecution had asked for. The prosecutor on Wednesay had only asked for the life sentence against Dah to be confirmed.

But he had wanted harsher sentences against the seven other people convicted.

The defendants denied many of the charges against them during the trial.

The Marrakesh bombing was the deadliest in the north African kingdom since attacks in the coastal city of Casablanca in 2003 which killed 33 people and 12 bombers.