Italians Arrest Brother of Marseilles Killer

Anis Hannachi
-La Stampa

Italian authorities, acting on information provided by their French counterparts, have arrested Anis Hannachi, the brother of Ahmed Hannachi, who stabbed two young women to death at the Marseilles train station on October 1. Translation of the below La Stampa article by this writer.

http://www.lastampa.it/2017/10/09/italia/cronache/arrestato-il-fratello-del-killer-di-marsiglia-ha-combattuto-in-siria-respinto-dallitalia-nel-bc5abg17aBSvejXqRqraqO/pagina.html

Marseille's killer brother arrested: "He fought in Syria. Expelled by Italy in 2014 "

Anis Hannachi, the brother of the killer who  stabbed the cousins Laure and  Marianne to death  at  Marseille's Saint-Charles station, was denied entry by Italy in 2014 when he arrived at Favignana with other Tunisians on a boat. That's what emerged from the investigation after Hannachi's arrest. The probable presence of the man in Italy was reported by the French authorities on the evening of October 3 and the 4th it was confirmed with certainty he was in our country, in Liguria. Hannachi was then arrested on October 7 in Ferrara. 

The man had fought among foreign fighters who arrived from around the world in Syria to participate in jihad. This is what the French authorities have communicated to the Italian authorities. The hypothesis of the Transalpine authorities is that it was indeed Anis Hannachi who indoctrinated and provoked the radicalization of Brother Ahmed. Investigators also stressed that at the moment, "there is no evidence" that the arrested would want to take action in Italy or plan for attacks in our country or that he had "solid support" in Ferrara where he was traced and stopped. Anis was hosted by a fellow countryman who regularly lives in Ferrara and is integrated with the city. In the same apartment four or five boys, all fellow countrymen. Some are students.  

Anis was not known to the Italian authorities as a radicalized subject: police data banks had only the photos of 2014, when he was then expelled and sent back to Tunisia. "It was  French colleagues," explained Lamberto Giannini, the Director of Police Anti-terrorism, "reporting him as a jihad fighter in the Syrian-Iraqi context." In the ranks of jihadists, along with thousands of foreign fighters, Anis would have been active for at least two years, from 2014 to 2016.  

The men of Digos in Bologna and Ferrara yesterday executed a European arrest warrant issued by the French authorities. The allegation hypothesized by the Transalpine investigators against the 25-year-old Tunisian who, immediately after being arrested, was made available to the Attorney General at the Bologna Court of Appeal, is participating in a terrorist association and complicity in the crime committed by his brother. But not only (that): Anis might have played a role in organizing what happened in Marseilles even though, as it has been  possible to reconstruct at the moment, he would not have been present in the second French city on the day of the attack.