Pardoned Moroccan clerics say they were tortured

RABAT, Morocco — Three conservative clerics whose arrests nine years ago heralded the beginning of Morocco's crackdown on Islamists called on Thursday for a new investigation into their country's worst terrorist attack.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S., Moroccan authorities began targeting hardline Islamist clerics, especially those believed to be sympathetic to al-Qaida — a crackdown that broadened after the May 2003 bombings in Casablanca that killed 45.

The three clerics were convicted and sentenced to up to 30 years in prison at the start of 2003 — before the Casablanca attacks. Their pardoning by the king and release from prison over the weekend on the Prophet Muhammad's birthday suggests the government may finally be relaxing a fierce campaign against Islamists characterized by mass arrests.

In a news conference, the clerics said a new probe is needed to find out who was behind the bombings. The results of official investigations were never publicized though several people were convicted for carrying it out.

"We want the opening of a serious investigation into the 16 May attacks to shed light on those events — Morroccans have the right to know who is really behind these attacks," Hassan al-Kettani said. "I have met the people who carried out the attacks in prison and they themselves don't know who was behind it."

There has been no official explanation for who masterminded the attacks, with authorities at the time speculating at first that it was linked to al-Qaida and then later saying it was a local group.

The three clerics, known for their ultraconservative, or Salafi, approach to Islam, were fiercely critical of the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, something they say contributed to their arrests. They faced charges such as associating with criminal gangs and assembling without permission.

"We were put in prison and our only crime was to denounce foreign intervention into Muslim countries," said Abou Hafs.

Omar Heddouchi said he was tortured in prison and said conditions were even worse than in the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo since there at least prisoners were allowed to have Qurans.

"They stripped me naked and I was beaten all over my body, I can no longer see in my left eye," he told a crowd of journalists and conservative supporters. "I signed my confession blindfolded and under torture."