There was a row in the Lower House
Wednesday after opposition League MP Alessandro Pagano called
Silvia Romano, an aid worker who converted to Islam during an
18-month detention by Somali Islamist militants, "the
neo-terrorist".
Pagano was chided by Deputy House Speaker Mara Carfagna, a
member of the League's ally, the centre-right Forza Italia (FI)
party of former three-time premier Silvio Berlusconi, with
Carfagna calling Pagano's words "unacceptable".
But protests continued and the ruling centre-left Democratic
Party (PD) called on the League to apologise for Pagano.
Meanwhile in Milan, where prosecutors have opened a probe
into a campaign of Web-based hate against 25-year-old Milan
native Romano, police cars kept patrolling the street where she
lives.
Romano was freed at the weekend after 18 months in captivity
by the Somali Al-Shabaab group.
On Tuesday night Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio denied an
Al-Shabaab spokesman's statement that the militants had received
a four-million-euro ransom for Romano.
Hatred on social media has been directed against Roman's
conversion to Islam, the fact that she did not criticise
Al-Shabaab, and her alleged naivety in travelling to a hotspot
without proper protection.
On Tuesday a former League councillor in Veneto said she
should be hanged.
Di Maio, former leader of the ruling anti-establishment
5-Star Movement (M5S), said Wednesday "spine-chilling things
have been said about Silvia, they have gone beyond any
acceptable limit."
He said he felt "deep embarrassment" over Pagano's words.
The commander of he ROS security police, Andrea Loy, paid
what he said was a "courtesy visit" to Romano at her home on
Wednesday.
Romano was freed after a joint operation by Italian, Turkish
and Somali intelligence services.
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