(By Denis Greenan).
Italian police on Monday
arrested a Moroccan 'foreign fighter' near the Calabrian town of
Cosenza.
Hamil Mehdi, a 25-year-old street vendor, denied being a
member of ISIS and said he had recently visited Turkey "only to
pray".
But prosecutors said Mehdi has been watching a lot of
videos on ISIS and on being a martyr for Islam.
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano hailed Mehdi's arrest as
proof that new laws were effective.
"Today a Moroccan was arrested, probed for 'training
for activities with terrorist aims, including international
ones', a crime introduced with the recent anti-terror decree,"
he said.
"The new anti-terror norms are effective and I'm very
proud of that because they reward the work of the police and
offer magistrates new tools, fit for the strategies we have
to face".
The government decree, which has just become law, was
framed after the November 13 Paris terror attacks that killed
130 people.
Cosenza police chief Luigi Liguori said anti-terrorism
DIGOS law enforcement agents had been trailing Mehdi since last
July, after Turkish authorities blocked him at the Istanbul
airport and sent him back to Italy.
Authorities said Mehdi was in Istanbul attempting to reach
Syria to join ISIS.
Liguori said the investigation was "very tight and across
the board, without neglecting any detail".
Italian authorities said their subsequent investigation
revealed Mehdi was planning to move to Belgium, had a "dogged
interest for images, films and other propaganda content
referring to ISIS", and "a natural propensity" to join the ISIS
cause.
In Luzzi, the Calabrian town where Mehdi and his family
have their home, Mayor Manfredo Tedesco said he and local
residents are surprised by the arrest.
"The young Moroccan and his family were perfectly
integrated into our community," said Tedesco.
"Our entire community is truly speechless".
Mehdi arrived in Luzzi in 2006 with his parents and three
younger brothers, all of whom have permanent stay permits.
Prosecutors also said Mehdi was in contact with known
international terror groups.
These included ones linked to 26-year-old Moroccan Ayoub
El-Khazzani, who in August last year tried to attack a
Paris-Amsterdam train with an assault rifle.
"The young man had kitted himself up with self-training
manuals and videos, and he downloaded a lot of videos about ISIS
and martyrdom," prosecutors said at a press conference on the
arrest.
"We're still combing through the evidence, but we can say
for certain that he was in telephone contact with terrorists. We
know Mehdi wanted to travel to Belgium in September...and that
he fought constantly with his family over his growing
extremism," prosecutors said.
For example, Mehdi banned his brother from calling his
girlfriend on the phone, and from going to the beach where he
might see women in bathing suits.
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