Suspected Tunisian IS supporter expelled from Italy

Rome, July 10 (IANS/AKI) Italy's Interior Minister Mattel Salvini deported a 26-year-old Tunisian accused of supporting the Islamic State jihadist group, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.

The suspect was expelled aboard a flight to Tunis from Malpensa airport near Milan, the ministry said.

The Tunisian had been living in the northwest Italian port city of Genoa after he was deported from France on national security grounds, the ministry said. The man entered Italy in 2014 on a student visa and came to the attention of investigators in 2015 due his contact on social media with a 31 year-old Tunisian who recruited for IS, the interior ministry said.

The 31-year old Tunisian IS recruiter was found to have ties to Anis Hanachi, brother of Islamic extremist Ahmed Hanachi, who stabbed two young women to death in the southern French port city of Marseille on October 1, 2017, according to the Interior Ministry.

Italy has deported a total 62 alleged Islamic extremists this year and 299 since January 2015, said the Ministry.

--IANS/AKI

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