'ISIS boxer' wife deported after terrorism conviction

(ANSA) - Rome, August 21 - The wife of Abderrahim Moutaharrik, a Moroccan competitive kickboxer who was jailed in 2017 over alleged links to the Islamic State (ISIS), has been deported from Italy to Morocco.
    A court had in 2017 sentenced him to six years in jail and his wife, Salma Bencharki, to five years in jail.
    Moutaharrik and his wife were arrested in April 2016 prior to carrying out what investigators said were their plans to leave for Syria with their children to join ISIS.
    The court suspended the couple's custody of their two children.
    Interior ministry sources say that she was deported on an order signed by Minister Matteo Salvini for state security reasons.
    Investigators said Moutaharrik was heard in wiretapped conversations claiming that he would be the first to attack the Vatican.
    His attorney Sandro Clementi told journalists in 2017 during the trial that Moutaharrik never made that claim.
    Moutaharrik has been notified that his Italian citizenship has been revoked, as the interior ministry had proposed some months back.