(supersedes previous).
An Afghan suspected of terrorism
was released Thursday while two others arrested in the same
probe for abetting illegal immigration were kept in jail.
Hakim Nasiri, a 23-year-old Afghan national detained by
Carabinieri police in the southern city of Bari on suspicion of
being part of a criminal association for Islamist terrorism, is
to be released from jail after a judge rejected a request to
keep him detained, ANSA sources said.
Nasiri used his right to be silent at a hearing on
Thursday.
The Bari judge upheld a request to keep in jail the two
other suspects arrested in the terror probe. However, the pair,
29-year-old Afghan Gulistan Ahmadzai and 24-year-old Pakistani
Zulfikar Amjad, are not accused of terror charges but of
abetting illegal immigration.
The three were detained as Italian police on Tuesday broke
up an alleged ISIS support network based in Bari that was
allegedly planning terror attacks in Italy and the UK.
Among the material seized were martyr chants, a caricature
of US President Barack Obama, and a photo of one suspect with
Bari's mayor at a rally in support of migrants.
Investigations are focusing on a centre for producing
false documents as well as on foreign fighters.
Two people are still wanted in relation to the probe,
suspected of terrorism offences. A police detention order named
them as Qari Khesta Mir Ahmadzai, 30, and Surgul Ahmadzai, 28.
They were resident at a migrant reception centre in Bari.
All five suspects had obtained rights to stay in Italy and
to humanitarian assistance and protection in recent months.
Two of the suspects had visited seven cities in 9 days,
the detention order documentation showed. Cities visited
included London, Milan, Paris and Istanbul.
Material investigators found belonging to them included
photos taken in front of an Italian navy ship in the port of
Bari, images of weapons, of Taleban militants and audio files
downloaded from the web with radical Islamist prayers and
indoctrination.
Photos and videos of Rome and London were also among the
material found in the mobile phones of one of the suspects
detained in Tuesday's terrorism operation.
Rome's Colosseum and Circus Maximus sites featured in the
material.
"The organization prepared, via inspections of sites
(including via photographic and video documentation), terrorist
attacks on airports, ports, police vehicles, shopping centres,
hotels, in addition to other unspecified attacks in Italy and
England," investigators said.
Nasiri was domiciled at the Bari-Palese centre for asylum
seekers and had been granted 'protection status', which is
similar to refugee status, earlier this month.
Ahmadzai was domiciled at Borgo Liberta' in the province
of the southern city of Foggia and was granted protection status
in September 2011.
Investigators said they had uncovered a criminal
association "for international terrorism in Italy and abroad"
made up of a "network of logistic support of a subversive
supranational religious organization, functionally linked to the
international terrorist organization called ISIS, to the Islamic
Emirate of Afghanistan and al-Qaeda".
They said suspects in the probe provided "support to
individuals willing to conduct suicide attacks or combat actions
in foreign countries, in particular Iraq and Afghanistan".
The material investigators found also included images of
weapons, of Taleban militants and audio files downloaded from
the web with radical Islamist prayers, proselytization and
indoctrination.
"The terror cell spread the violent ideology of the holy
war and combat techniques (operation manuals, manuals to
manufacture explosives), via the instrument of the Internet,"
read the warrant for the detentions, adding that the material
was "ready to be used".
The group were preparing for attacks but there was no
imminent threat in Italy, Bari prosecutor Giuseppe Volpe told a
press conference.
"We have absolutely no evidence pointing to an imminent
attack in Italy," he said.
The gang's possession of photos of sensitive targets like
airports and ports "are significant elements, but the fact that
they were already ready to carry out attacks is a further and
not demonstrated step (in investigations), but they were
certainly preparing," he said.
The investigation was sparked off when Carabinieri police
were called to intervene at Bari's Santa Caterina Ipercoop
shopping centre over the suspicious behaviour of four foreign
people.
One of the foreigners was filming the shopping centre with
a mobile telephone.
Investigators subsequently found a video of the interior
of Bari-Palese airport among the contents of the phone.
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