Italy’s highest court has blocked the extradition to Morocco of a Moroccan cleric suspected of involvement in the 2003 Casablanca bombings, Italian news agency ANSA reported on Thursday. The decision overturned a 2004 ruling by a regional Italian court to hand over Mohammed Rafik to Rabat after it had received guarantees that the imam would not face the death penalty if found guilty. ANSA said Thursday’s verdict was definitive. The high court ruling came just four days after a Milan judge acquitted three north Africans accused of recruiting suicide bombers for Iraq, arguing the men were guerrillas rather than terrorists. Morocco believes Rafik was a member of an extremist group involved in the suicide attacks in Casablanca in May 2003, which killed 45 people, including 12 bombers. Full Story
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