(supersedes previous)A Palermo judge on Wednesday denied a request from prosecutors to keep in custody a female Libyan researcher at a Sicilian university suspected of instigation to commit acts of terrorism.
Police earlier in the day had detained Benghazi native Khadiga Shabbi, 45, on evidence gleaned after months of surveillance that she is in contact with at least two foreign fighters - one in Belgium, the other in Britain - and has produced propaganda for al-Qaeda on the Internet. She also allegedly sent money to Turkey and tried to bring her cousin to Italy, but he died in a gun fight. Investigators say she is related to members of a terrorist group that carried out a September 11, 2012, attack on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, in which Islamist militants killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and U.S.
Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith.
Police say her Facebook profile features propaganda from Islamist extremist groups such as Ansar al-Sharia Libya, plus war imagery, flyers, and sermons calling for jihad. A preliminary investigations judge ruled that there was no risk of Shabbi fleeing Palermo - where she has lived for the past three years on a 2,000-euro monthly stipend from the Libyan embassy - and only barred her from leaving the city and from leaving her home at night.
Prosecutors say they will appeal the judge's decision.
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