Morocco: what we know about the assassination of a Frenchwoman and the attempted assassination of a Belgian

A French septuagenarian was murdered on Saturday January 15 in Tiznit, Morocco. The same day, a hundred kilometers north of this city, a Belgian woman was attacked with a knife but escaped. Several investigations have been opened for acts of terrorism. Here is what we know about these two cases.

Last Saturday, January 15, 2022, a 78-year-old French woman was stabbed by an individual armed with a knife while she was in a market in Tiznit, about a hundred kilometers south of Agadir. The body of the victim was transferred to the city hospital for autopsy.

Four days after the tragedy, Wednesday January 19, the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) opened “a preliminary investigation of the assassination chief in connection with a terrorist enterprise”. The investigations were entrusted to the General Directorate of Internal Security, to the anti-terrorist sub-directorate of the central directorate of the judicial police and to the central directorate of the judicial police. “An investigation was also opened under a terrorist qualification by the general prosecutor’s office of Rabbah”, said the PNAT.

This Thursday, the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office informs that the same day as the assassination of the French septuagenarian, a Belgian national was also the victim of a stabbing attack in Agadir, a hundred kilometers from Tiznit . The victim is “born in 1955, is from the Mons region and lives in Morocco”. She is “severely injured but, according to local doctors, her life is not in danger”, informs the federal prosecutor’s office in a press release.

“Faced with these two facts, the Moroccan judicial authorities have decided to open a file for terrorism. The Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office, working in close collaboration with the French National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office, has therefore decided to also open a file, for attempted ‘assassination in a terrorist context’, adds the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. The investigation file was entrusted to the anti-terrorist section of the Federal Judicial Police of Charleroi.

After the two attacks, the General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) announced that a suspect had been arrested. The latter was filmed by a surveillance camera of a business in the municipal market of Tiznit, fatally attacking the French septuagenarian before fleeing. He was later arrested in Agadir where he also attempted to physically assault several customers of a cafe at the coastal strip. This is where the Belgian national was injured.

Placed in police custody, this man would have held, according to the Moroccan media The 360, “completely delusional remarks, confirming the principle of his insanity”. He reportedly said that he had heard “voice” emanating from “senior government officials of Western powers”. Asked about these acts, the suspect allegedly mentioned “a demon who would have ordered him to crack down with a bladed weapon against Westerners”.

According to several local media, the suspect has already been admitted to the psychiatry department of the Hassan I hospital in Tiznit for a month, from September 25 to October 25, 2021, on a requisition order issued by the local authority.

This Thursday, Var Morning reveals that the murdered French septuagenarian was a Varoise named Christiane F. “This 79-year-old mother of three had joined friends in southern Morocco and was staying at a campsite near Tiznit,” details the media.