Bardo suspect protests his innocence

(ANSA) - Milan, May 22 - Abdel Majid Touil told a judge at an extradition hearing Friday that he is innocent.
    The 22-year-old Moroccan national was arrested earlier this week on an international warrant issued by Tunisia on suspicion of participating in the deadly March 18 terror attack at Tunis' Bardo Museum that claimed 22 lives, plus those of two of the three gunmen.
    A third attacker escaped.
    "I've been in Italy since arriving in February," he told the court, adding that he came to join his family.
    He also denied consent to being extradited to Tunisia. "Why am in prison? I didn't do anything," Touil reportedly has been repeating since his arrest three days ago.
    Sources said he has been transferred from Milan's medium security San Vittore prison to maximum security at the city's outlying Opera penitentiary.
    National police chief Alessandro Pansa said the warrant was executed "correctly" and that "no restrictive measures will be taken (against Touil) if there is no evidence of guilt".
    Pansa went on to reassure critics of Italy's migrant and refugee policy who say terrorists might well be arriving on traffickers' boats from Libya, as Touil did in February.
    Italy's police and intelligence forces have their antennae "extremely finely tuned" to detect possible terrorist infiltration among illegal immigrants arriving on the peninsula, Pansa said.
    "We have the tools, efficient coordination between law enforcement and intelligence services, and international collaboration that works," Pansa told reporters. Also on Friday, Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni admitted that the Italian government is worried about recent advances made by Islamic State (ISIS) extremist militias in Syria and Iraq. "The Italian government is not just worried about Syria, but also about the perhaps even more threatening situation in Iraq," Gentiloni said. The minister added that the anti-ISIS coalition will meet soon in Paris to discuss strategy. ISIS, which has destroyed a series of ancient monuments, this week took control of the UNESCO archaeological site at Palmyra and is estimated to control about half of Syria. In Iraq, the jihadist group recently captured Ramadi and has vowed to "liberate" Baghdad and Karbala. "In a few days' time there will be a meeting of the heads of the anti-Daesh (ISIS) coalition in Paris and it will be fundamentally important to verify the strategy that we go ahead with," Gentiloni said.