Morocco’s criminal appeal court on Monday upheld death sentences for two main defendants in the 2017 La Crème café shooting in Marrakech and reduced prison terms for co-defendants, in a case tied to organized crime that left one young man dead and two others injured.
The criminal chamber of the Casablanca Court of Appeal confirmed capital punishment for the two principal defendants, identified in earlier reporting as Dutch nationals Edwin Gabriel Robles Martínez and Shardyone Ulises Girigorio Semerel, who acted as shooters in the Nov. 2, 2017 attack.
The shooting occurred on the terrace of La Crème café in Marrakech’s Hivernage district, killing 26-year-old medical student Hamza Chaib and wounding two others, including a waitress, as the gunmen fired at the owner of the café, their supposed target, who was not present at the time.
Investigators linked the attack to international narcotics trafficking networks and determined it was part of a criminal dispute between rival groups, prompting arrests of at least 16 suspects, including the café owner and accomplices.
In Monday’s appeal ruling, the court reduced the sentence for defendant Jamal T. to nine years in prison from 10, and for his brother, Abdel Nasser, to eight years.
The owner of La Crème, sentenced earlier to 15 years, received a 10-year term, while another defendant, Mohamed F., had his prison term cut to five years.
Morocco’s legal framework retains the death penalty for serious crimes including premeditated murder and terror-related offenses, but no executions have been carried out since 1993, effectively placing the country under a long-standing moratorium.
Human rights organizations and some political groups have called for formal abolition, and Morocco recently voted in favor of a United Nations moratorium on executions.
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