The Palermo prosecutor’s office, coordinated by Maurizio de Lucia, has ordered the arrest of two Bangladeshi citizens accused of apology and incitement to commit crimes related to terrorism . The two, aged 21 and 18 respectively, have spread Islamic State propaganda material and praised jihad , martyrdom and the use of violence.
The investigating judge ordered both to be placed under house arrest with the obligation to wear an electronic bracelet . The investigation, coordinated by the DDA, was conducted by the Digos of Palermo.
Who are the two arrested for terrorism in Palermo?
The two arrested are Himel Ahmed and Munna Tapader . According to the prosecution, they publicly apologised for crimes related to terrorism, praising, exalting and instigating violence as a tool to fight against the West and sharing on social media material containing references to jihad and the “severe punishment” to be inflicted on unbelievers.
They asked the AI how to hit
The suspects, who had become radicalized, had systematically searched the web for propaganda and indoctrination material full of ISIS exaltation, listened to and spread proclamations and messages with content inciting violence, martyrdom and self-harm: symptoms, according to the investigating judge, “of a deep-rooted and profound ideological adherence, rather than of an interest in knowledge”.
During the investigation, the police found in the memory of the devices that the two suspects used videos and posts related to religious sermons, jihadist songs, many of which with repeated exaltation of the martyrs of jihad. Ahmed Himel asked the artificial intelligence “where to hit a person to paralyze them” , while Munna Tapader published as his cover image a black flag with the writing in Arabic “Caliphate. We entered the land of our mother’s womb for martyrdom – Al Mahmud”. Furthermore, the detainee posted a video depicting Osama Bin Laden with the writing in Bengali “Gaza I feel you very much, if you were here there wouldn’t be so much distance”, a collage of photos of himself at the central station in Palermo among guerrillas and assault rifles with the phrase “one day if God wills”.
The Digos also found contacts between the suspects and other users of social media praising jihad. The investigations were born from monitoring conducted by the Digos on the web and in particular on people close to Islamic radicalism.
