Italy mulls Israel’s extradition request for arrested Palestinian terror suspect
ROME — Italian police have arrested three Palestinians based in central
Italy who they said were planning attacks in an unspecified country, a
police statement said on Monday, with Israel requesting the extradition
of one of them.
The three men, living in l’Aquila, about 120 kilometers (75 miles)
northeast of Rome, had set up a cell linked to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs
Brigades, the statement said.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is an armed offshoot of Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s secular nationalist Fatah party. It
is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the European Union, and the
United States.
Police said the three Palestinians had been charged with criminal
conspiracy for terrorism purposes or subversion of the democratic order,
which carries jail terms of up to 15 years.
“The suspects engaged in proselytism and propaganda… and planned
attacks, including suicide attacks, against civilian and military
targets on foreign territory,” police said.
One of the three men is wanted by Israel, which is at war with the
Palestinian terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and an Italian court
is examining an extradition request for him, the statement added.
In a separate statement, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi hailed the
arrest of “three dangerous terrorists” and said Italy was always on high
alert against extremism and radicalization.
There was no immediate comment by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
