Anis Hannachi, the brother of
Marseilles killer Ahmed Hannachi, combatted with jihadi foreign
fighters in Syria, according to information the French
authorities passed on to their Italian counterparts,
investigators said Monday.
Tunisian Anis Hannachi was arrested in Ferrara on Saturday.
He is suspected of complicity in the Marseilles attack, in
which two young women were stabbed to death, and of radicalizing
his brother.
The Italian police executed a European arrest warrant for
Anis Hannachi, who later Monday agreed to be transferred to
France.
The Marseilles victims were two cousins aged 20, Mauranne and
Laura.
Ahmed Hannachi reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" as he
stabbed the women.
The so-called Islamic State claimed responsibility for the
attack.
Anis Hannachi was sent back by Italy in 2014 when he landed
at Favignana in 2014 on a migrant boat with other Tunisians,
according to the results of investigations after his arrest.
The French authorities had notified Italy that he was
probably in Italy on October 3 and on October 4 it was
ascertained that he was in Liguria.
At the moment "there is no evidence" that Anis Hannachi
wanted to commit terrorist actions in Italy or had plans to do
so, investigators said at a press conference Monday.
There is also nothing to suggest that the 25-year-old
Tunisian had "solid support" in Ferrara for logistics.
Anis Hannchis' court-appointed lawyer, Laura Lemmi, said "My
client does not understand Italian and needed an interpreter. He
is as tranquil as you can be in these cases".
In Ferrara, he was the guest of a childhood friend who told
police he had "no idea" the Hanachis had become radicalised.
Italy's chief anti-terrorism prosecutor Franco Roberti told
reporters: "Ahmed never showed any signs of radicalization in
Italy.
"The investigative hypothesis we're working on is that the
younger brother radicalized the older one."
Ahmed Hannachi, who has shot dead by soldiers, had reportedly
lived in Italy for several years and was reportedly married to
an Italian woman resident in Aprilia, near Rome - the same town
where Berlin truck attacker Anis Amri also lived for a short
time, police said.
Amri killed 12 people at a Berlin Xmas market before going on
the run and being shot dead at Milan central train station in
December 2016.
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