The mother of a Danish student beheaded along with another Scandinavian woman while hiking in Morocco's High Atlas mountains has called for the suspected jihadist killers to face the death penalty as their trial neared its end on Thursday.

'The most just thing would be to give these beasts the death penalty they deserve, I ask that of you,' said Helle Petersen in a letter read by her lawyer in an anti-terrorist court in Sale, near the capital Rabat.

'My life was destroyed the moment that two policemen came to my door on December 17 to announce my daughter's death,' the mother of 24-year-old Louisa Vesterager Jespersen wrote in the letter, read out in total silence and with the defendants' faces impassive.

Journalists flocked to the court where the trial of the 24 suspects reopened for what could be its last day, in a case that has shocked the North African country.

This combination of pictures created on December 20, 2018 shows Rachid Afatti (L), Ouziad Younes (C), and Ejjoud Abdessamad (R). The three men have admitted killing the two Scandinavian hikers whose bodies were found at a camp in Morocco's High Atlas mountains

Danish student Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, and Norweigan woman, Maren Ueland, 28, were found beheaded in Morocco's High Atlas Mountains in December 2018

Prosecutors have already called for the death penalty for the three main suspects behind the murder of Jeserpersen and 28-year-old Norwegian Maren Ueland.

Ueland's family has declined to take part in the trial.

The maximum sentence was sought for 25-year-old suspected ringleader Abdessamad Ejjoud and two radicalised Moroccans, although the country has had a de facto freeze on executions since 1993.

Petitions on social media have likewise called for their execution.

The three men, who had admitted to killing the women, were 'bloodthirsty monsters', the prosecution said, pointing out that an autopsy report had found 23 injuries on Jespersen's decapitated body and seven on that of Ueland.

Ejjoud, an underground imam, confessed at a previous hearing to beheading one of the women and Younes Ouaziyad, a 27-year-old carpenter, the other, while Rachid Afatti, 33, had videoed the murders on his mobile phone.

The defence team said it would call for the judge to take into account extenuating circumstance.

'We will appeal for mitigating circumstances on account of their precarious social conditions and psychological disequilibrium,' Hafida Mekessaou said.

Coming from modest backgrounds, with a 'very low' level of education, the defendants lived for the most part in low-income areas of Marrakesh.

The prosecution has called for jail terms of between 15 years and life for the 21 other defendants on trial since May 2.

Lawyers walk inside the court house in Sale, Morocco, in June this year as the trial of the men charged with the Scandanavian hikers' death continued

The life sentence has been sought for Abderrahim Khayali, a 33-year-old plumber, who had accompanied the three alleged assailants but left the scene before the murders.

The prosecution called for 20 years in jail for Kevin Zoller Guervos, a Spanish-Swiss convert to Islam.

The only non-Moroccan in the group, Guervos is accused of having taught the main suspects how to use an encrypted messaging service and to use weapons.

His lawyer, Saskia Ditisheim, said Guervos' 'most basic rights had been trampled' in a letter to the Swiss foreign ministry, regretting that he had not had 'consular protection'.

All, but three, of those on trial had said they were supporters of the Islamic State (IS) group, according to the prosecution, although IS itself has never claimed responsibility for the murders.

Flowers and candles are placed in memory of Louisa Vesterager Jespersen and Maren Ueland at the Town Hall Square in Copenhagen, Denmark, shortly after the women were found dead in December 2018

Louisa Vesterager Jespersen's lawyers have accused authorities of having failed to monitor the activities of some of the suspects before the two women had their throats slit while camped in an isolated mountain area.

The brutal killings could have been spared had authorities heeded information on the behaviour of street vendor Ejjoud, they said.

The alleged ringleader, who had been convicted for trying to join IS in Syria, was released early from prison in 2015 and went on to meet former inmates and other individuals without checks by authorities, attorney Khaled El Fataoui said.

He alleged police had been informed of the activities of the group of men but failed to act.

Lawyer Houssine Raji added the suspects met in Koranic schools run by cleric Mohamed al-Maghraoui, which had been shut in 2010 under a court decision but ordered reopened in 2012 by the justice minister.

Investigators have said the 'cell' was inspired by IS ideology, but Morocco's anti-terror chief insisted the accused had no contact with the jihadist group in conflict zones.