KEY POINTS:
RABAT - A kick boxer suspected of involvement in Britain's biggest cash robbery was jailed for eight months by a Moroccan court today for possessing drugs and assaulting police officers.
Britons Lee Murray and Paul Allen, who were arrested in a shopping mall in Rabat in June, were also fined 10,000 dirhams ($1693.45).
The court ordered them to pay 303,100 dirhams to Moroccan customs related to drug possession. They must remain behind bars until the fine is paid, even though they have already served the jail terms.
Murray arrived in Morocco shortly after a 53 million pound ($150.68 million) armed hold-up of a Securitas cash depot in Kent, England, and was arrested by Moroccan security forces with Allen and two other Britons in June.
The two other Britons were given four-month jail terms and fines of 5,000 dirhams.
British police have charged several people in connection with the February 2006 heist and Britain has begun extradition proceedings against Murray, whose father is a Moroccan who emigrated to Britain.
Officials said police discovered small amounts of cocaine when they raided a villa in the wealthy Rabat suburb of Souissi where Murray was living with the men who acted as his bodyguards.
Murray had pleaded not guilty to drug possession and assaulting the police officers who arrested him.
Murray's wife, mother and father, who attended the trial, smiled when the verdict was translated for them.
"The decision was unexpected and is 100 per cent satisfying," said Murray's defence lawyer Abdullah Benlemhidi al-Issaoui, who said he expected a decision on the extradition by Morocco's Supreme Court soon.
Murray once competed as a cage fighter and appeared on television as Lee "Lightning" Murray, according to British media.
- REUTERS
