A gardener who murdered and dismembered a Moroccan Jewish couple in Casablanca last year has been sentenced to death.

Mustapha Rerhay, 51, was found to have killed Sam Toledano and Vicky Chetrit, a high-profile couple in the country’s Jewish community, last summer.

He then dismembered the pair, before burying their remains in various sites across Casablanca.  

Rerhay, who worked as a gardener for the couple, stole jewellery and other possessions from their home in an attack police insisted was a financially motivated one, rather than a hate crime.

French media outlets have reported Rerhay suffered from a gambling addiction, and had been evicted from his rented property not long before the murder.

He was sentenced to death on Monday, May 29.