Alleged bus hijacker 'not terrorist'

(ANSA) - Milan, December 9 - Ousseynou Sy, the 47-year-old Senegalese-Italian accused of attacking last March a bus with schoolchildren aboard and subsequently setting it on fire in an apparent attempt to kill them, told a court on Monday he is neither a killer nor a terrorist.
    "I am neither a killer nor a terrorist and I hope justice will be done also for us Africans", the defendant said in a spontaneous statement to the court.
    "I am also a son of Africa, the Africa that you know very well, that has seen its sons deprived of human dignity, of any right to serenity, of happiness, even today".
    The man is accused of hijacking the bus with 50 pupils, two teachers and a janitor on board in San Donato Milanese on March 20.
    "As an Italian citizen and an African, I accuse" anti-immigration League leader Matteo Salvini, who was deputy premier and interior minister at the time of the hijacking, "and his government of crimes against humanity and genocide".
    Sy, a man with a criminal record who is originally from Senegal but has been an Italian citizen since 2004, got off the bus after it was stopped by police, alerted by 'hero' students on board.
    He is also accused of setting it alight.
    The Carabinieri managed to get the children out by smashing windows at the back.