Two British men held following Casablanca bombings

Two British men are under arrest in Morocco, one in connection with suicide bombings that killed 44 people in Casablanca in May, the British embassy said yesterday.

"One man is held over the May 16 (attacks) and the second one is also held, but it's not clear if he is also suspected of terrorism," said an embassy spokesman in the capital Rabat.

In a nationwide clampdown, authorities have charged about 700 people, mostly Moroccans, with direct or indirect involvement in the almost simultaneous attacks that killed 44 people, including 12 suicide bombers.

Several trials are under way. Yesterday, a court in Fez sentenced 29 members of the Islamist group Salafist Jihad to up to 30 years in prison on charges including belonging to a criminal organisation, kidnap and inciting violence, the official MAP news agency said.

The sentences, not directly linked to the Casablanca blasts, stemmed from a clampdown on militants that followed them.

Of the two British men arrested, one has British nationality and the second dual British-Moroccan nationality, the embassy spokesman said. Both were being held in Fez.

MAP said 37-year-old Islam convert Anthony Perry Jansen, born in London, was arrested in June and has appeared before a judge. He was being prosecuted for incitement to violence, association with criminals and membership of an illegal group.

Police sources named him as Perry Jensen. "He is believed to belong to the international radical Islamist movement and had contacts with the Moroccan leaders of the Salafist Jihad movement," MAP said, citing sources.

Two newspapers said he would go on trial in early August. Newspaper Liberation said he had lived in Afghanistan and Chechnya. The police department in Fez, in northern Morocco, would not comment.