The teacher of a Moroccan national
suspected of participating in a bloody March 18 attack on Tunis'
Bardo Museum confirmed Thursday that Abdel Majid Touil was in
her Italian class on March 16 and 19.
"I confirm the young man was in class March 16 and 19,"
Flavia Caimi said.
Touil, 22, was arrested Tuesday on an international warrant
issued by Tunisia.
However Milan prosecutors now believe he was in Italy on
the day of the assault based on school records and teachers'
testimony, ANSA sources said.
Prosecutors believe he was also in Italy on the day before
and day after the March 18 attack in which 22 people were
killed, including four Italians.
Earlier on Thursday, the suspect's brother showed ANSA a
notebook with Italian exercises on dated pages, which he claimed
proved the 22-year-old could not have taken part in the deadly
assault by a three-man commando.
Tunisian police killed two of the gunmen, and the third
escaped.
"This is the book with which my brother studied Italian,"
Abderazzak Touil told ANSA.
"Here's the page from March 19. How could he have returned
from Tunisia (in time to do it?)".
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said that further
clarification of Touil's movements was needed as he reported to
parliament on the case.
The minister also said Italy is not responsible for the
international warrant that led to Touil's arrest.
"We executed a...warrant issued based on an investigation
that was carried out in another country," he said.
"Italy is not responsible...the capture was no easy task
and was carried out thanks to fingerprinting and the system we
have in place for tracking down a person who gave a false
identity," the minister went on.
Milan magistrates are carrying out a "careful check" of the
suspect's alibi, National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor Franco Roberti
said Thursday.
He said care was taken to balance the fight against
terrorism with "extreme respect for the individual rights of
persons under investigation". That "strengthens us in the fight
against international crime...balancing efficiency and
security".
Premier Matteo Renzi backed up his minister against critics
who said authorities went after an innocent man.
"When a suspect gets arrested, you can't say it would have
been better not to," the premier said.
"He may turn out not to be guilty, and I am in favor of the
presumption of innocence. But anyone who says it would have been
better not to arrest him should see a shrink".
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