Bardo terror suspect arrested near Milan

(ANSA) - Rome, May 20 - Italian authorities are holding a 22-year-old Moroccan man on suspicion of participating in a bloody March 18 attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunis pending an extradition request from Tunisia, sources said Wednesday. The suspect named as Abdel Majid Touil, was arrested late Tuesday on an international warrant issued by Tunisia. An appeals court hearing is slated for Friday. The court must decided whether or not to extradite Touil to Tunisia, where he may face the death penalty if found guilty. Italy does not have the death penalty, and this may factor into the court's decision. The March 18 attack by three gunmen claimed the lives of 21 tourists and one Tunisian police officer.
    Police killed two of the attackers at the scene, and the third escaped. While government congratulated intelligence and law enforcement on the operation that led to Touil's arrest and anti-immigrant politicians called for the interior minister's head, the suspect's family and friends protested his innocence.
    "Proud of your professionalism," Premier Matteo Renzi tweeted after anti-terror police arrested the Moroccan national in what Justice Minister Andrea Orlando called a "brilliant operation". "Congratulations to our men in uniform, our investigators and intelligence officers," said Interior Minister Angelino Alfano. "The terrorist...reached Italy...on a migrant vessel," anti-immigrant, anti-euro Northern League party chief Matteo Salvini wrote on Facebook. "Alfano must resign". To which Alfano later replied that "Italy doesn't deserve Salvini".
    Lampedusa Mayor Giusi Nicolini - whose island is the first European landfall for boats coming from North Africa - said it's unlikely a terrorist would risk his life on a migrant vessel. "In 15 years no terrorist has landed on Lampedusa," said the Democratic Party (PD) mayor, an outspoken defender of refugee rights. "We've only seen people with burns and kidney failure, children, women...I don't think a real terrorist would risk his life on such a boat," she said.
    "My brother has committed no crime," one of the suspect's two siblings told ANSA. "He arrived on a boat (on February 17) like many others, and hasn't left since". "On March 18 my son was in front of the TV," Touil's mother Fatma told ANSA. "We watched news of the Bardo attack together...he had nothing to do with the attack - he was in Italy". "He studied Italian and he was looking for a job". Neighbors questioned whether police have the right man in custody. "Surely the police made a mistake," one neighbor commented. "He was home a lot, sometimes he went to Caritas (Catholic charity) for a meal," another told ANSA. "He's a good boy, he was looking for work". "He went to school to learn Italian," another woman said. "An international terrorist who lives at home with his mother, brothers and little nephew, who goes to school and eats at Caritas...seems strange to me".