Italian police arrest man with alleged links to 2015 Paris terrorist attacks

A French policeman stands guard in front of the Bataclan concert venue during a ceremony marking the fifth anniversary of the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris, November 13, 2020

Credit: Reuters

Italian police on Monday arrested a man in the southern port of Bari on suspicion of being involved in the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, including the assault on the Bataclan concert hall.

The man, named as Athmane Touami, 36, an Algerian citizen, is reported to have had links with Finsbury Park Mosque in London.

He allegedly provided fake documents to the Islamist terrorists who carried out the Paris attacks, in which 130 people were murdered and 350 wounded.

The terrorists launched coordinated attacks on the Bataclan theatre, five cafes and the Stade de France.

He was also accused of being a member of a terrorist organisation, with Italian police saying he was a member of Islamic State.

Touami had undergone “a process of religious radicalisation and had frequent and prolonged contacts with jihadists and militants in international terrorist organisations,” police said.

He had had contact with an imam at Finsbury Park Mosque, who had contributed to his radicalisation, police said. The imam had disseminated a video in which it was claimed that Covid-19 was a “divine punishment” for non-Muslims and Muslims who were not strictly obedient to Islamic beliefs.

Touami is already in prison in Bari, where he is serving a two-year sentence for possession of counterfeit documents.

He was due to be released in June, but the accusations relating to the Paris attacks mean that his release has been blocked.

A new detention order has been issued, with Italian investigators saying Touami would most likely disappear “without trace” if he was allowed out of prison.

Bari was a key transit point for jihadists returning from the Middle East to Europe, investigators said.

“Bari is becoming a central focus in the fight against terrorism. There’s no doubt that those coming from war zones and areas governed by terrorist networks must pass through Bari for logistical reasons in order to reach other European countries,” said Roberto Rossi, a regional prosecutor.

Touami, also known as Tomi Mahraz, is alleged to have been in contact with Abdelhamid Abaaoud, an IS extremist from Belgium who was the mastermind of the Paris attacks. Abaaoud was killed in a police raid five days after the attacks.

French investigators have established that the perpetrators of the Paris attacks were in possession of 14 fake Belgian identity documents from the same manufacturer.

The forgeries enabled them, according to French judges, "to carry out preparations for the attacks and in particular to rent flats, to travel around Europe to set up the terrorist cell, to withdraw money."