Rabat — Authorities arrested a man suspected of co-ordinating the bombings in Casablanca that killed 31 people, but he died in custody, judicial officials said Wednesday.
The man, captured Monday in Fez, was identified as "Abdelhak" or "Moul Sebbat," which means "shoe-seller," said Alaoui Belghiti, the prosecutor-general of the appeals court of Casablanca.
Mr. Belghiti said the suspect suffered from heart disease and died while being transferred to a hospital.
Moroccan officials released no other details about him and did not say whether he had links to foreign terror groups suspected of involvement in the attack.
"His health unfortunately did not allow investigators to finish all the elements of the probe," Mr. Belghiti told Moroccan public television.
The near-simultaneous blasts on May 16 against five locations in Casablanca — a Jewish community centre, a Spanish social club, the Belgian consulate, a Jewish-owned restaurant and a major hotel — killed 31 people, on top of a dozen suicide bombers.
Last week, three people who allegedly had been in contact with the bombers were arrested.
The bombers were all of Moroccan nationality, but authorities believe the attacks were the work of an international network.
Investigators are focusing on whether the attackers were linked to Muslim extremist groups like the clandestine Salafia Jihadia, a homegrown group suspected of possible ties to the al-Qaeda terror network of Osama bin Laden.
