A French convert to Islam was sentenced to life in prison on charges of trying to organize an uprising in the North African kingdom.
A prosecutor sought the death penalty for Pierre Robert, 31, but he was spared on Thursday by a three-judge panel in the Moroccan capital, Rabat.
On the trial's last day, Robert made a final plea of innocence and asked Morocco's king to intervene on his behalf. When the verdict was announced, he showed no visible reaction.
"I'm relieved that my client escaped the death penalty," said lawyer Vincent Courcelle-Labrousse, who argued that there was a lack of material evidence against Robert.
Robert and 33 others on trial with him were arrested in a crackdown following May 16 suicide bombings in Casablanca, Morocco's largest city, that killed 45 people, including 12 bombers.
Two of Robert's co-defendants were also sentenced to life in prison, and others received sentences of up to 30 years in prison. Two were acquitted.
Robert was found guilty of "undermining state security" and "forming a criminal gang in relation with a terrorist enterprise," among other charges.
His case was not directly related to the five near-simultaneous bombings in Casablanca. Instead, he was accused of trying to set up an underground Islamic network in northern Morocco and start a bloody insurgency similar to the one in neighboring Algeria. The 11-year Islamic insurgency there has left an estimated 120,000 people dead.
Robert accused Moroccan security services of fabricating the case against him and asked King Mohammed VI to intervene. The king was in Paris on a private visit. The French man's defense said that he would appeal to Morocco's highest court. Robert is eligible to serve out his sentence in a French prison, in keeping with a judicial agreement between the two countries.
The bombings in this normally peaceful
kingdom led to a massive investigation and the arrest of hundreds
of suspected extremists believed to be members, like Robert, of the
clandestine Salafiya Jihadia group.