Prosecutors said Thursday that two
alleged supporters of terrorist group ISIS were refusing to
answer questions related to suspicions they were plotting
attacks on Italian targets.
Tunisian Lassaad Briki and Pakistani Muhammad Waqas were
arrested in Brescia on Wednesday after they posted plans for
attacking Italian landmarks as well as a military base on their
Twitter accounts.
Prosecutors said the pair invoked their legal right to
remain silent under questioning.
"People of Rome, the choice of whether to die is up to
you," they allegedly wrote in one post.
Authorities allege the pair announced plans to attack
churches as well as major sites such as Rome's ancient Colosseum
and Milan's Duomo.
It was also alleged the two wanted to travel to Syria to
train and fight with the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group.
The alleged terrorists also spoke of hitting the air base
at Ghedi near Brescia - the base for anti-ISIS Tornados.
The two me had created a Twitter account called
'Islamic_State in Roma' and allegedly planned terrorist actions,
posting messages with photos of famous Italian sites in the
background.
"We are in your streets. We are everywhere. We are locating
targets, waiting for time X," read some of the messages, written
in Italian, Arabic and French.
As part of the investigation, police acquired wiretaps of
conversations between the men, who communicated in Italian as
that was they only language they had in common.
They allegedly discussed how to make a home-made bomb as
set out in a jihadi manual titled How to Survive in the West,
prosecution documents showed Wednesday.
Milan prosecutor Maurizio Romanelli said that in addition
to the Ghedi military base in Brescia as a potential target, the
pair also spoke of attacking the fruit shop where the Tunisian
man worked as a cleaner, and also issued "generic threats
against law enforcement".
He said that there was never, however, "a real danger with
the transition from words to action".
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