9 convicted of terror attacks escape Morocco jail

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Source: MSNBC

PARIS - Morocco's state news agency reported Monday that nine people convicted in cases linked to 2003 terrorist attacks in Casablanca have escaped from prison.

MAP cited a statement from the Moroccan Justice Ministry saying that the nine escaped from the prison in Kinitra.

The ministry said all measures have been taken to find the escapees.

MAP said the nine were convicted "in cases linked to the 2003 events," without elaborating. Suicide bombings in Morocco in May 2003 killed 45 people, including the attackers.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23994651/

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. They tunnelled out

An interior ministry source told AFP news agency that the prisoners had tunnelled their way out.
...
A source close to Islamist prisoners told the BBC the nine men had left a message on their wall of their jail.

It said they had suffered from injustice and were escaping because they saw no other solution to their woes, stressing that they received no outside help for their prison break.
...
Officials had been sent to the prison to investigate how the convicts had broken out, it said. In December 2007, drugs baron Mohammad Ouazzani escaped from the same jail.

Eight prison guards were subsequently convicted of helping him.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7335004.stm