The long-held suspicion that there could be Islamic fundamentalist terrorists among the thousands of boat people who have arrived on Italian shores in recent months became more credible on Wednesday with the arrest near Milan of 22-year-old Moroccan Abdel Majid Touil.
Wanted by Tunisian authorities for his role in the March attack on the Bardo museum in Tunis in which 24 people died, Touil first featured on Italian radar on February 17th when he was one of a boatload of migrants who landed at Porto Empedocle in Sicily.
On that occasion, Touil was immediately identified and served with a expulsion order. At that point, however, he fell off the radar, only re-emerging in April when his mother, with whom he was living in Gaggiano, near Milan, reported that his passport was missing.
Touil's movements since his arrival in Italy last February are unclear. If Tunisian police are correct, he has been able to travel in and out of Italy seemingly at will over the last three months.
Anti-terrorism investigator Bruno Megale told reporters in Milan that Touil had been apprehended on the basis of an international arrest warrant. Mr Megale also said that the accusations in the Tunisian arrest warrant against Touil include premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit attacks against the state, belonging to a terrorist group and recruiting and training others to commit terrorist attacks.
The March 18th attack on the Bardo museum, in which gunmen opened fire on tourists who had just alighted from an Italian meditteranean cruise ship, prompted global outrage, with world leaders travelling to Tunis to take part in a march to denounce terrorism.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, but Tunisian police believe that the jihadi group Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigade may have actually carried it out. On March 29th, Tunisian forces killed nine men allegedly belonging to the Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigade by way of reprisal.
Although a number of people have been arrested in connection with the Bardo attack, the Tunisian interior ministry has said it believes the mastermind of the attack is still at large. Touil is not considered to be that mastermind, but a spokesman for Tunisia’s interior ministry, Mohammed Ali Aroui, confirmed he was the subject of an international arrest warrant for his involvement in the attack, telling Associated Press:
“He participated indirectly in the attack, supporting the ones who carried it out.”
At this point, Italian investigators are not sure of the level of links, if any, between Touil and Islamic State. What seems clear though is that he is linked to jihadic fundamentalism and that, in that guise, he has been active in both a recruitment and organisational role in Italy.
The immediate future of the Moroccan is unclear. Tunisia will seek his extradition, but Italy may delay granting this since Touil could face a death sentence if convicted in a Tunisian court.