Police are also investigating a teacher from the city now working in Ferrara, an Italian citizen who converted to Islam and who is believed to have been in contact with the man arrested, it was reported on Wednesday. Elmahdi Halili, 23, arrested in the northern city of Turin, “was studying how to prepare a truck for an attack”, Francesco Messina, the city’s police chief said. Though neither man arrested this week was in Italy illegally and both are Italian citizens, the leader of the populist right League party, Matteo Salvini, called on Wednesday for tighter controls of Italy's borders and an immediate halt to migrant arrivals by sea. Abdel Rahman, 59, was head of the Al Dawa Islamic center in the southern city of Foggia, and police said they believed he used the position to promote “terrorist activities” and spread jihadist propaganda. The man was also accused of indoctrinating young children and encouraging them to kill non-Muslims, Reuters reported.
Italian counter-terror police arrest Elmahdi Halili on suspicion of planning attacks with knives and lorries, attempting to recruit terrorist attackers, and creating the first piece of Islamic State propaganda in Italian.