October 31, 2025 • 14 mins
In 2017, Moroccan parliamentarian Abdelatif Merdas was murdered in a plot orchestrated by his wife, Wafaa, who was having an affair with political consultant Hicham Mouchtari. The conspiracy also involved Hicham’s half-sister, a known sorceress, Rouqiya Chahboune. Hicham used his hunting rifle and hired an accomplice for the getaway. Wafaa eventually confessed, revealing the full scheme, and all conspirators were convicted.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Casablanca, Morocco, March twenty seventeen. Picture this late Tuesday night,
one of those really exclusive walled neighborhoods. It's quiet, humid.
You can almost smell the jasmine mixed with wealth city air.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Yeah, just the hum of security cameras, the usual sounds
of wealth and quiet, until it wasn't quiet anymore.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Parliamentarian Delatif Mirdas, a very big name, wealthy, pulls up
to his villa. He's waiting for the garage door, probably
thinking about politics the next day.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
He definitely wasn't thinking about the dark sedan speeding up
behind him. He never saw it coming.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
It was fast, efficient. A rear window slides down.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Three shots bang bang bank, just like that, two to
the head, one chest.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Professional used a hunting rifle, which is specific suggests a
marksmen exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
The cars going instantly just vanishes into the night, leaves
behind this a horrific scene.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Police forensics they're there in minutes, and the first thought
is obvious.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Professional job, an assassination, not a robbery. The weapon joy
sealed that in EXPERI and shooter, maybe a hired gun
or someone who really knows hunting rifles.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
And then right in the middle of this chaos comes
the victim's wife, Wafa. She was already sort of known,
married a famous singer before Meridis.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
She arrives with their three kids, sees the body and well,
it's pure drama. Collapses screaming right there in front of everyone.
The camera's rolling, very public grief.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
So you've got this scene looks like a political hit
on the surface, but what we're diving into today shows
something much darker underneath. Murder, betrayal, greed, even dark magic.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, it's a wild one.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Our mission today is to unpack how investigators had to
look past the obvious, past the political theories, past that
very loud display of grief, to uncover what was really
going on with parliamentarian Meridis's murder.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Well, the first instinct, naturally was political. Murdis was powerful, rich.
There were apparently some let's say, reservations about how we
got that ridge so fast?
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Right, so please start digging into enemies and politics or business.
It's the logical first step.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Makes sense, But that trail, it just went cold fast.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
They had CCTV, but the car was common, the plate
was hidden. A security garden nearby saw it happen. Mirdas
arriving around ten pm. The black car window down shots
quick escape, but nothing concrete to go on.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Felt like a bed end until Wafa, the grieving widow,
steps in and she completely flips the script. How so
she challenges that whole kind man few enemies image of
her husband. She tells the police, Myridas was planning to
take a second wife.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
A second wife in that world.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, caula younger woman. And get this, she's the daughter
of Merida's close friend and campaign manager.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Okay, wow, that definitely shifts things away from politics and
straight into well personal drama exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
And Wafa doesn't just drop that bomb. She immediately points
the finger at who Colin's brother, Mustafa. He's twenty seven.
Wafa describes a huge, loud fight they had recently. Says
Mustafa threatened Meridas right there the villa.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Okay, motive starting to form. Why the threat?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
According to Wafa, it was about explicit photos. Photos of
Myrdess and Cala had somehow leaked online, humiliated Cola, ruined
a reputation. Mustapha was apparently furious.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Right protecting his sister's honor.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Maybe that was the narrative Wafa gave and then the kicker.
She mentions Mustapha drives a black car, same type scene
leaving the murder scene.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Okay, so now the police have a suspect, a mode
of revenge, a history, and a matching car description. It's
pretty tidy, Yeah I did.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
They even confirmed Miridis had filed in assault complaint against
Mustapha before Mustapha did a little jail time, but Miridas
dropped the charges later, probably because of Kala and her father.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
So history of violence clear, motive means opportunity, case closed,
That's what they thought.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
But Mustapha, well, he had an answer.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
He didn't just confess.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Not at all. He admitted Yeah, he threatened. Merdas said
it was emotional in the heat of the moment. But
then he drops his alibi and it's solid.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Okay, what was it?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
He was miles away across Cossablanca with friends. Multiple people
saw him. There was camera footage totally confirmed. No way
he could have been at the villa at ten pm.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Wow, Okay, so the alibi holds. What about the car,
the black car? Waka made such a big deal about that.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Fell apart two Mustafa proved it. Yes, he used to
own that model of car. Keywords used to he sold it,
sold it four months before the murder, produced the contracts.
The friend who bought it drove it straight to Europe.
It wasn't even a Morocco when murders was killed.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
So Mustafa is completely cleared, alibi, no car.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Totally cleared, which leaves the police asking a very awkward question.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Why did Waffa lie? Why deliberately try to frame Mustafa?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Exactly? She didn't just offer a theory, She constructed a
whole scenario, pointing them directly at an innocent man. That's calculating.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
So the focus has to swing back around, doesn't it
right on to Wafa herself? What was she really up to?
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Precisely, investigators started looking closer at her behavior, the loud
public grief versus her private actions, which were well. Two
things stood out almost immediately. First, pretty soon after the murder,
she goes to the bank and with straws a big
chunk of cash sixty thousand Moroccan dirhams.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Okay, maybe funeral expenses or maybe not? What else?
Speaker 2 (05:16):
This one's more telling. While the investigation is in full swaying,
she goes to the director of taxes in real estate
why to check which properties of Merinesses were already legally
in her name, and then she asked how to get
the rest transferred to her.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
WHOA, Okay, while her husband's body is barely cold, she's
securing the assets.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
That's how it looked. Priority seemed financial. Made the whole
grief performance feel very suspect, like crocodile tears. Yeah, the
sources put it.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
And what about her not being there? She and the
kids were staying at her parents' house just ten minutes away,
supposedly by coincidence.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Investigators weren't buying coincidence anymore. They dug into that the
daughter the testimony was key. She told police Waffa made
her call her dad Meridis that night to do what
confirm his arrival time, and Wafa specifically asked him to
pick up some.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Food on the way home, delaying him pinpointing his arrival.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
It certainly looked like she was timing his arrival, making
sure he'd be pulling up right when the killer was ready.
This wasn't an accidental absence. It felt orchestrated.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
So the investigators, these experienced detectives, they're seeing this pattern right.
Theatrical grief, the framing attempt, the financial moves, the timing, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
They started suspecting she was deliberately trying to confuse him.
Her story kept changing too. One minute, it's Mustafa, the
next she's hinting maybe some foreign agency killed him. It
was just noise misdirection.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Okay, So Wafa is now squarely in the spotlight. What's
the next move for the police surveillance?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, secretly watch her, listen in, see who she talks to,
where she goes. Did pay off almost immediately. They noticed
she was constantly frequently communicating with one specific phone number,
a number they didn't recognize.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Whose number was it?
Speaker 2 (07:01):
It belonged to a man named Chichim Mushtari. He was
listed as a political consultant, married three kids, no obvious
ties to Mirrodus politically speaking.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
A political consultant seems random.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
But Hitcham had another job, a side hustle. Maybe he
was a well known, very skilled professional hunter.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
A hunter.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Yeah, even had a big YouTube channel showing off his
skills with rifles.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Wait a minute, hunting rifle, the murder weapon bingo.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Suddenly, Hitcham Mushtari looked very interesting.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Did they find a connection between him and Wafa?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Oh yeah. They pulled the text between that number and
Wafa's phone. It was in business. It was romantic explicitly,
so they were having an affair.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
So the lover is a professional hunter who uses the
exact type of weapon used in the murder.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
It clicks into place, doesn't it? Romotive, motive means, and
the very specific skill needed for that kind of shot.
Heachim becomes suspect number one.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Did they check his videos, his rifles?
Speaker 2 (07:58):
They did, reviewed his honey videos confirmed he owned and
used precisely the type of hunting rifle used to kill Mirdas.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
So they move in.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
They move in, arrest Hitchem, search his place. And where
do they find the rifle? Me?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yes, not locked in a gun safe.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Hidden under his bed. He denied it was there first,
but they found it.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
And during the interrogation Wafa must have realized something was
wrong when he went silent exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
She started calling his phone over and over, frantic. The
police saw this. They told Hitchum, don't answer, just let
her call.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Let the pressure build, smart psychological pressure.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Hours went by. Finally they let Hitchum answer, but they
told him stay calm, don't give anything away. She broke instantly,
the relief of hearing his voice mixed with terror. Maybe
she just blurted it out, something like she was terrified
the police would find out what they had done.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
She confessed just like that over the phone.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Effectively, Yes, confirmed her involvement right there. That was enough.
They arrested her immediately.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Oh so Wafa and her lover Hitchem conspired to kill Mirroredos.
But there's usually more to these things, isn't there?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Oh? There was. The interrogations revealed another layer, a third
person involved, and this connection is well, it's bizarre.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Who was it?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Remember Wafa's confidante, the woman she supposedly went to for
spells to keep murder us loyal, Roquoya Shabone, known locally
as a sorceress, a fortune teller.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Yeah, I remember that detail. Strange, but maybe grief makes
people do strange things.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Turns out Roquoya the sorceress was Hitchim Ashtari's half sister.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
His sister, the fortune teller, introduced the lovers.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
She was the link. But it wasn't about love spells,
not really. It was a setup, a financial scheme. Riquoya
and Hitchum apparently ran what kind of scheme? Hisham targeted wealthy,
older women, vulnerable women. Roquoya would help make the introduction.
Futum would start a relationship, gain their trust, get access
to their assets, and then and then split the profits
(09:53):
with Ruquoya. Waffa was meant to be just another target.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
In their con But she wasn't just a target.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
No, this is the final twist. Waffa wasn't the manipulated victim.
Here she flipped the script on them. She became the mastermind.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
She was driving the murder plot, not just going along
with it.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
She orchestrated it. She wanted Merodas dead for freedom, yes,
but mainly for the money, total control over his estate.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
How did they piece that together?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
It started with those photos, the explicit pictures of Meridas
and Caula. Waffa found them on his.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Phone, and instead of confronting him, she.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Saw an opportunity. She created a fake social media account
and leaked the photos herself.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Why to hurt Kala.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Not primarily, Her goal was strategic. She knew Kula's brother,
Mustafa was volatile. She leaked the photos specifically to provoke
Mustafa into making those public threats against.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Mirdas, to create a scapegoat a prepackaged suspect.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
For the police exactly she handed them Mustafa on a
silver platter. It was brilliant in a chilling way.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
And she designed the murder itself to fit that narrative.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Down to the details. She insisted Hitchim usable black car
like Mustafa's old one. She insisted he shoot from inside
the car, making it look like Mustafa's angry, impulsive revenge
attack carried out by Hitcham, the expert marksman.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Wow, the level of planning is something else. Who drove
the getaway car?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Hitcham needed a driver he could trust. He recruited his
own nephew, Hamsa, and the payment promised him a large sum.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Guess how much let me guess sixty thousand dirhams exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
The precise amount Waffa withdrew from the bank right after
the murder. That wasn't for funeral flowers. That was Hamsa's payment.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Every detail seems accounted for. They even tried to cover
the forensic tracks, didn't they.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yes, Hitcham was thorough. After the murder, Hamsa fled the
country immediately went to Turkey. Hitchum himself went on a
supposed hunting trip.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Why to create an alibi partly.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
But also to fire more rounds from that specific rifle.
And crucially, he did something very technical. He changed the
rifle's firing pin. Sources called it the waking needle.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Okay, hold on changing the firing pin, Why is that
such a big deal.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Forensically, it's incredibly sophisticated. Actually, every firing pin leads a
unique microscopic mark on the primer of a bullet cartridge.
When it strikes it, it's like a fingerprint for the gun.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Right ballistics matching exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Police find the bullets at the scene, they find the gun,
They test fire the gun and compare the filing pin marks.
If they match, they link the gun to the crime.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
So by changing the pin after the.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Murder, Heisham hoped that any test firing the police did
with the rifle they found under his bed would produce
marks from the new pin which wouldn't match the bullets
recovered from Meritis's body. He was trying to create a
forensic dead end, making it impossible to definitively link his
rifle to the actual shooting.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
That is seriously calculated. Altering the weapons fingerprint a.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Very clever attempt to beat the science and yet.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
It didn't work. The whole conspiracy collapsed anyway.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
It did. Despite that effort, the forensic teams were still
somehow able to match the bulk bullets from Murdis back
to Haitcham's rifle. Maybe the original marks were distinctive enough,
or maybe there were other microscopic matches on the bullet
itself from the beryl's rifling. The specifics aren't detailed, but
the match was.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Made, and Hamsa the driver.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
He was eventually caught arrested in Turkey about ten months later.
The net closed in on all.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Of them, so the final judgment the.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Courts came down hard. Hitcham mustre the shooter, lover and
hunter sentenced to death by.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Execution, Hamsa the nephew who.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Drove thirty years in prison, and.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Ruquia the sister, the sorceress who made the introduction.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
She got twenty years for her role in the conspiracy
and the financial scheme.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
And Wafa, the mastermind behind it.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
All, life imprisonment.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
It's just staggering a case that starts looking like a
political hit. Maybe international espionage ends.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Up being driven by pure, cold calculated greed and betrayal,
orchestrated from within. The family home. Detectives really had to
cut through layers of deception, the politics, the fake suspect,
the dramatic grief.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
It really makes you think about Waffa's motivation, doesn't it
She had wealth status. Was it really just about getting
more money, getting total control? Or was there an element
of rage of wanting freedom mixed in?
Speaker 2 (14:13):
That's the lingering question. I think she sacrificed everything, her family,
her reputation, multiple lives tangled in her plot, all while
putting on this immense public show. What truly drove her
more the anger of betrayal, the thrill of the scheme,
or just that ice cold desire for absolute financial power.
It's something to really ponder.
Casablanca, Morocco, March twenty seventeen. Picture this late Tuesday night,
one of those really exclusive walled neighborhoods. It's quiet, humid.
You can almost smell the jasmine mixed with wealth city air.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Yeah, just the hum of security cameras, the usual sounds
of wealth and quiet, until it wasn't quiet anymore.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Parliamentarian Delatif Mirdas, a very big name, wealthy, pulls up
to his villa. He's waiting for the garage door, probably
thinking about politics the next day.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
He definitely wasn't thinking about the dark sedan speeding up
behind him. He never saw it coming.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
It was fast, efficient. A rear window slides down.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Three shots bang bang bank, just like that, two to
the head, one chest.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Professional used a hunting rifle, which is specific suggests a
marksmen exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
The cars going instantly just vanishes into the night, leaves
behind this a horrific scene.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Police forensics they're there in minutes, and the first thought
is obvious.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Professional job, an assassination, not a robbery. The weapon joy
sealed that in EXPERI and shooter, maybe a hired gun
or someone who really knows hunting rifles.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
And then right in the middle of this chaos comes
the victim's wife, Wafa. She was already sort of known,
married a famous singer before Meridis.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
She arrives with their three kids, sees the body and well,
it's pure drama. Collapses screaming right there in front of everyone.
The camera's rolling, very public grief.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
So you've got this scene looks like a political hit
on the surface, but what we're diving into today shows
something much darker underneath. Murder, betrayal, greed, even dark magic.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, it's a wild one.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Our mission today is to unpack how investigators had to
look past the obvious, past the political theories, past that
very loud display of grief, to uncover what was really
going on with parliamentarian Meridis's murder.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Well, the first instinct, naturally was political. Murdis was powerful, rich.
There were apparently some let's say, reservations about how we
got that ridge so fast?
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Right, so please start digging into enemies and politics or business.
It's the logical first step.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Makes sense, But that trail, it just went cold fast.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
They had CCTV, but the car was common, the plate
was hidden. A security garden nearby saw it happen. Mirdas
arriving around ten pm. The black car window down shots
quick escape, but nothing concrete to go on.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Felt like a bed end until Wafa, the grieving widow,
steps in and she completely flips the script. How so
she challenges that whole kind man few enemies image of
her husband. She tells the police, Myridas was planning to
take a second wife.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
A second wife in that world.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, caula younger woman. And get this, she's the daughter
of Merida's close friend and campaign manager.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Okay, wow, that definitely shifts things away from politics and
straight into well personal drama exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
And Wafa doesn't just drop that bomb. She immediately points
the finger at who Colin's brother, Mustafa. He's twenty seven.
Wafa describes a huge, loud fight they had recently. Says
Mustafa threatened Meridas right there the villa.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Okay, motive starting to form. Why the threat?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
According to Wafa, it was about explicit photos. Photos of
Myrdess and Cala had somehow leaked online, humiliated Cola, ruined
a reputation. Mustapha was apparently furious.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Right protecting his sister's honor.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Maybe that was the narrative Wafa gave and then the kicker.
She mentions Mustapha drives a black car, same type scene
leaving the murder scene.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Okay, so now the police have a suspect, a mode
of revenge, a history, and a matching car description. It's
pretty tidy, Yeah I did.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
They even confirmed Miridis had filed in assault complaint against
Mustapha before Mustapha did a little jail time, but Miridas
dropped the charges later, probably because of Kala and her father.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
So history of violence clear, motive means opportunity, case closed,
That's what they thought.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
But Mustapha, well, he had an answer.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
He didn't just confess.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Not at all. He admitted Yeah, he threatened. Merdas said
it was emotional in the heat of the moment. But
then he drops his alibi and it's solid.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Okay, what was it?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
He was miles away across Cossablanca with friends. Multiple people
saw him. There was camera footage totally confirmed. No way
he could have been at the villa at ten pm.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Wow, Okay, so the alibi holds. What about the car,
the black car? Waka made such a big deal about that.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Fell apart two Mustafa proved it. Yes, he used to
own that model of car. Keywords used to he sold it,
sold it four months before the murder, produced the contracts.
The friend who bought it drove it straight to Europe.
It wasn't even a Morocco when murders was killed.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
So Mustafa is completely cleared, alibi, no car.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Totally cleared, which leaves the police asking a very awkward question.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Why did Waffa lie? Why deliberately try to frame Mustafa?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Exactly? She didn't just offer a theory, She constructed a
whole scenario, pointing them directly at an innocent man. That's calculating.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
So the focus has to swing back around, doesn't it
right on to Wafa herself? What was she really up to?
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Precisely, investigators started looking closer at her behavior, the loud
public grief versus her private actions, which were well. Two
things stood out almost immediately. First, pretty soon after the murder,
she goes to the bank and with straws a big
chunk of cash sixty thousand Moroccan dirhams.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Okay, maybe funeral expenses or maybe not? What else?
Speaker 2 (05:16):
This one's more telling. While the investigation is in full swaying,
she goes to the director of taxes in real estate
why to check which properties of Merinesses were already legally
in her name, and then she asked how to get
the rest transferred to her.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
WHOA, Okay, while her husband's body is barely cold, she's
securing the assets.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
That's how it looked. Priority seemed financial. Made the whole
grief performance feel very suspect, like crocodile tears. Yeah, the
sources put it.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
And what about her not being there? She and the
kids were staying at her parents' house just ten minutes away,
supposedly by coincidence.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Investigators weren't buying coincidence anymore. They dug into that the
daughter the testimony was key. She told police Waffa made
her call her dad Meridis that night to do what
confirm his arrival time, and Wafa specifically asked him to
pick up some.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Food on the way home, delaying him pinpointing his arrival.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
It certainly looked like she was timing his arrival, making
sure he'd be pulling up right when the killer was ready.
This wasn't an accidental absence. It felt orchestrated.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
So the investigators, these experienced detectives, they're seeing this pattern right.
Theatrical grief, the framing attempt, the financial moves, the timing, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
They started suspecting she was deliberately trying to confuse him.
Her story kept changing too. One minute, it's Mustafa, the
next she's hinting maybe some foreign agency killed him. It
was just noise misdirection.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Okay, So Wafa is now squarely in the spotlight. What's
the next move for the police surveillance?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, secretly watch her, listen in, see who she talks to,
where she goes. Did pay off almost immediately. They noticed
she was constantly frequently communicating with one specific phone number,
a number they didn't recognize.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Whose number was it?
Speaker 2 (07:01):
It belonged to a man named Chichim Mushtari. He was
listed as a political consultant, married three kids, no obvious
ties to Mirrodus politically speaking.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
A political consultant seems random.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
But Hitcham had another job, a side hustle. Maybe he
was a well known, very skilled professional hunter.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
A hunter.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Yeah, even had a big YouTube channel showing off his
skills with rifles.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Wait a minute, hunting rifle, the murder weapon bingo.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Suddenly, Hitcham Mushtari looked very interesting.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Did they find a connection between him and Wafa?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Oh yeah. They pulled the text between that number and
Wafa's phone. It was in business. It was romantic explicitly,
so they were having an affair.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
So the lover is a professional hunter who uses the
exact type of weapon used in the murder.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
It clicks into place, doesn't it? Romotive, motive means, and
the very specific skill needed for that kind of shot.
Heachim becomes suspect number one.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Did they check his videos, his rifles?
Speaker 2 (07:58):
They did, reviewed his honey videos confirmed he owned and
used precisely the type of hunting rifle used to kill Mirdas.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
So they move in.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
They move in, arrest Hitchem, search his place. And where
do they find the rifle? Me?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yes, not locked in a gun safe.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Hidden under his bed. He denied it was there first,
but they found it.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
And during the interrogation Wafa must have realized something was
wrong when he went silent exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
She started calling his phone over and over, frantic. The
police saw this. They told Hitchum, don't answer, just let
her call.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Let the pressure build, smart psychological pressure.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Hours went by. Finally they let Hitchum answer, but they
told him stay calm, don't give anything away. She broke instantly,
the relief of hearing his voice mixed with terror. Maybe
she just blurted it out, something like she was terrified
the police would find out what they had done.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
She confessed just like that over the phone.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Effectively, Yes, confirmed her involvement right there. That was enough.
They arrested her immediately.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Oh so Wafa and her lover Hitchem conspired to kill Mirroredos.
But there's usually more to these things, isn't there?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Oh? There was. The interrogations revealed another layer, a third
person involved, and this connection is well, it's bizarre.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Who was it?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Remember Wafa's confidante, the woman she supposedly went to for
spells to keep murder us loyal, Roquoya Shabone, known locally
as a sorceress, a fortune teller.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Yeah, I remember that detail. Strange, but maybe grief makes
people do strange things.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Turns out Roquoya the sorceress was Hitchim Ashtari's half sister.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
His sister, the fortune teller, introduced the lovers.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
She was the link. But it wasn't about love spells,
not really. It was a setup, a financial scheme. Riquoya
and Hitchum apparently ran what kind of scheme? Hisham targeted wealthy,
older women, vulnerable women. Roquoya would help make the introduction.
Futum would start a relationship, gain their trust, get access
to their assets, and then and then split the profits
(09:53):
with Ruquoya. Waffa was meant to be just another target.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
In their con But she wasn't just a target.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
No, this is the final twist. Waffa wasn't the manipulated victim.
Here she flipped the script on them. She became the mastermind.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
She was driving the murder plot, not just going along
with it.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
She orchestrated it. She wanted Merodas dead for freedom, yes,
but mainly for the money, total control over his estate.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
How did they piece that together?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
It started with those photos, the explicit pictures of Meridas
and Caula. Waffa found them on his.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Phone, and instead of confronting him, she.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Saw an opportunity. She created a fake social media account
and leaked the photos herself.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Why to hurt Kala.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Not primarily, Her goal was strategic. She knew Kula's brother,
Mustafa was volatile. She leaked the photos specifically to provoke
Mustafa into making those public threats against.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Mirdas, to create a scapegoat a prepackaged suspect.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
For the police exactly she handed them Mustafa on a
silver platter. It was brilliant in a chilling way.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
And she designed the murder itself to fit that narrative.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Down to the details. She insisted Hitchim usable black car
like Mustafa's old one. She insisted he shoot from inside
the car, making it look like Mustafa's angry, impulsive revenge
attack carried out by Hitcham, the expert marksman.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Wow, the level of planning is something else. Who drove
the getaway car?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Hitcham needed a driver he could trust. He recruited his
own nephew, Hamsa, and the payment promised him a large sum.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Guess how much let me guess sixty thousand dirhams exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
The precise amount Waffa withdrew from the bank right after
the murder. That wasn't for funeral flowers. That was Hamsa's payment.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Every detail seems accounted for. They even tried to cover
the forensic tracks, didn't they.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yes, Hitcham was thorough. After the murder, Hamsa fled the
country immediately went to Turkey. Hitchum himself went on a
supposed hunting trip.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Why to create an alibi partly.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
But also to fire more rounds from that specific rifle.
And crucially, he did something very technical. He changed the
rifle's firing pin. Sources called it the waking needle.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Okay, hold on changing the firing pin, Why is that
such a big deal.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Forensically, it's incredibly sophisticated. Actually, every firing pin leads a
unique microscopic mark on the primer of a bullet cartridge.
When it strikes it, it's like a fingerprint for the gun.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Right ballistics matching exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Police find the bullets at the scene, they find the gun,
They test fire the gun and compare the filing pin marks.
If they match, they link the gun to the crime.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
So by changing the pin after the.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Murder, Heisham hoped that any test firing the police did
with the rifle they found under his bed would produce
marks from the new pin which wouldn't match the bullets
recovered from Meritis's body. He was trying to create a
forensic dead end, making it impossible to definitively link his
rifle to the actual shooting.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
That is seriously calculated. Altering the weapons fingerprint a.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Very clever attempt to beat the science and yet.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
It didn't work. The whole conspiracy collapsed anyway.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
It did. Despite that effort, the forensic teams were still
somehow able to match the bulk bullets from Murdis back
to Haitcham's rifle. Maybe the original marks were distinctive enough,
or maybe there were other microscopic matches on the bullet
itself from the beryl's rifling. The specifics aren't detailed, but
the match was.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Made, and Hamsa the driver.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
He was eventually caught arrested in Turkey about ten months later.
The net closed in on all.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Of them, so the final judgment the.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Courts came down hard. Hitcham mustre the shooter, lover and
hunter sentenced to death by.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Execution, Hamsa the nephew who.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Drove thirty years in prison, and.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Ruquia the sister, the sorceress who made the introduction.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
She got twenty years for her role in the conspiracy
and the financial scheme.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
And Wafa, the mastermind behind it.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
All, life imprisonment.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
It's just staggering a case that starts looking like a
political hit. Maybe international espionage ends.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Up being driven by pure, cold calculated greed and betrayal,
orchestrated from within. The family home. Detectives really had to
cut through layers of deception, the politics, the fake suspect,
the dramatic grief.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
It really makes you think about Waffa's motivation, doesn't it
She had wealth status. Was it really just about getting
more money, getting total control? Or was there an element
of rage of wanting freedom mixed in?
Speaker 2 (14:13):
That's the lingering question. I think she sacrificed everything, her family,
her reputation, multiple lives tangled in her plot, all while
putting on this immense public show. What truly drove her
more the anger of betrayal, the thrill of the scheme,
or just that ice cold desire for absolute financial power.
It's something to really ponder.
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