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Rabat — Morocco has arrested five youth members of the premier’s Islamist party who allegedly celebrated last week’s murder of the Russian ambassador to Turkey, a party source said Thursday.

Authorities arrested the five from the youth movement of Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane’s Justice and Development Party (PJD), the source said, after the assassination of Andrei Karlov on December 19.

The Akhbar Al-Yaoum daily reported a sixth person had been called in for questioning.

The PJD, whose leader has been tasked with forming a new governing coalition after winning October parliamentary polls, has yet to comment on the arrests.

But the head of the party’s lawyer association, Abdessamad al-Idrissi, said he would be defending those detained.

Under Moroccan law, the crime of justifying terrorist acts can be punished by up to six years in prison and more than $19 000 in fines.

— AFP