A Moroccan military court has sentenced eight army officers to up to five years in prison for leaking military intelligence information about an Al Qaeda plot, lawyers and court officials said on Wednesday. The weekly Al Watan Alaan quoted a military intelligence document last month as saying that Al Qaeda had decided to send 12 Arab and four Pakistani fighters to carry out attacks in Morocco and other Maghreb states. The Royal Armed Forces Permanent Court in Rabat found the officers guilty of divulging professional secrets and undermining state security. It sentenced them to prison terms of between six months and five years and fined four of them 10,000 Dirhams ($1,230) at a hearing on Tuesday.
The Maghreb region has been on alert since al Qaeda's North Africa wing, the Algerian-based Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, threatened to step up its war against "corrupt" regional rulers and their Western allies. In June, Morocco raised its security alert level to "maximum", suggesting an al Qaeda attack was imminent.
The Interior Ministry said it had obtained intelligence information on the threat but gave no details. Police arrested Al Watan's managing director Abderrahim Ariri and journalist Mustapha Hourmatallah over the report . The two men were charged with receiving and concealing stolen documents, and face up to two years in jail if convicted by a criminal court in Casablanca next week.