Court of lecce

• 2014 - 2018
• Croatia (Hrvatska) ,
• Germany ,
• Italy

Identification of the Source

The case is based on the sentence of the Court of Lecce of 27th Feb. 2018.

Description

Most of the following information come from phone interceptions and forensic extractions of data contained in mobile devices, confiscated to different suspects during the investigations.
29th Sept. 2014, the German authorities withdraw the passport of XX.
29th Sept. 2016, XX is reported by the German authorities as a "foreign fighter".
9th Nov. 2016, in Germany XX got arrested and XX gets involved in the investigation.
14th Nov. - 5th Dec., in this time XX exchanges with his accomplices at least 2100 messages and appears, without a shadow of doubt, as a leading figure of that group, able to give information and specific directives with the aim of reaching Turkey to organize suicide terrorist actions;
15th Nov., numerous searches are carried out by the German authorities in Germany, following which XX changes its contact details with XX.
2nd Dec., XX and his friend XX leave Berlin at 2:27 pm to Rome, via Munich, by train. The same day, at 11.47 pm, he receives a substantial message by an unknown person, called XX, inciting him to get the protection by Allah and that they will be soon together in heaven.
3rd Dec., they arrive in Rome at 9.22 pm.
4th Dec., XX, XX, XX are the members of the group that leave Germany by car (Audi A6, no. B-YS772), in an attempt to reach Turkey or some other territories occupied by Islamic States, but they get stopped in Brajakovo, Croatia. At this point XX get re-sent in Germany because of an order to not leave the country, while the 3 others initially continue the trip.
On 4th Dec. they take a Flixbus bus from Rome Tiburtina station to Ancona in the attempt to embark to Patras, Greece: this is shown by the fact that the two guys have made repeated internet accesses (documented by the registration of their accesses to various free Wi-Fi connections that they found along the journey) in an attempt to buy tickets for the trip to Patras, Greece, scheduled for December 4th at 4:30 pm, but they fail to embark because of a strike.
At this point, at 8.15 pm, they inform their accomplices, through the Viber platform, that the ferries have 2 days of strike so they are forced to wait and move for security reasons.
That evening XX makes his only mistake: he gives his original document to the hotel where the two want to rest for that night. He doesn’t know that he is already registered in Germany: after having been ascertained the illegal presence of his mate XX, in possession of an expired residence permit, who get arrested by the Italian authorities and taken to the identification and expulsion center of Restinco, Brindisi, he is brought first to the German Consulate in Milan and then put onto a train to Monaco.
7th Dec. - 22nd Dec., in this period of time 42 telephone contacts are found between XX and XX.
9th Dec., XX an XX decide to go back to Germany, while XX continue the trip and reach the Islamic State territories.
15th Dec., during the stay in the identification structure in Restinco, Brindisi, XX exchanged some messages regarding the Istanbul airport with a contact, XX, XX, to confirm the fact that his final destination was Turkey.
24th Dec., the police seize to XX 3 mobile phones, some phone cards and an SD memory card in which a document in German language, received via Bluetooth on November 7 and inciting to the Jihad, along with proclamations and images received instead through the Telegram platform, are found.
24th Jan. 2017, XX and another unknown person are intercepted while, on the phone, they say that XX and XX have already returned from the trip because of the difficult conditions of life in the Isis territories.
25th Jan., XX father complains about his son describing him as an aggressive and unpredictable person, who could hardly bear the pressures of the police and that it was better if he remained in prison another year.
29th Jan., the German authorities intercept a conversation between X and X in which they talk about a purifying fast made by X and his desire for martyrdom, which lead to think that he was about to carry out an attack.
31th Jan., after the cooperation between Italian and German authorities, the other components of the cell, an extremely diverse group formed by militants, all living in Germany, aged between twenty and thirty years with identical radicalization paths, get stopped.

Type of Crime

Terror-related crime (TN) - Association within the supranational terrorist organization called ‘’Islamic State'', for trying to commit acts of violence with terrorist purposes and in particular to participate in the various terrorist activities carried out by the Islamic State both within the occupied Syrian territory and outside the same, but also in Turkey (“remember the Testament of your Prophet, in the Arabic Island two religions can’t exist at the same time, the Turkey, take the help from Allah and attack it” it is written in a document found in a micro Sd storage in his smartphone).

Legal Ground:
• Article 270bis, subsections 1,2,3, of the Criminal Code "Associations for the purposes of terrorism, including international or subversion of the democratic order".

Anyone who promotes, establishes, organizes, directs or finances associations aimed at carrying out acts of violence with the purpose of terrorism or subversion of the democratic order is punished with imprisonment from seven to fifteen years.
Anyone participating in such associations is punished with imprisonment from five to ten years.
For the purposes of the criminal law, terrorism also occurs when acts of violence are directed against a foreign state, an institution or an international body.
The confiscation of the goods that served or was destined to commit the crime and of the things that are the proceed, the product, the profit or that constitute its use is always mandatory towards the convicted person.

Type of attack
Following the UN resolution nr 2249 and the EU-Directive 2017/541 on terrorism, as practical implementation of previous UN Resolutions between 2014 and 2016, a new typology of terror-related crimes has been introduced into the Italian legal system.
The new law punishes not only the attacks per se (or attempts of attacks) but also the propaedeutic acts:
- Participating in a terrorist network officially recognized;
- Recruitment of a group of people;
- The organization of travels to Syria;
- Selling their personal goods in order to finance the travel (art. 270 sexies c.p.);
- Being recruited by someone.

In this framework, the profile of the ‘new terrorists’ may be completely different from the profile of traditional terror perpetrators. What marks the difference is the fact that ‘act’, intended as terror acts, are missing while preparatory acts prevail.
In this case, the intentions of XX are quite clear because:
he left the German territory with XX, XX, XX, XX and XX to reach Turkey (only the last of them will succeed);
he was in contact with XX, the Berlin bomber;
- he participated with XX in the project to spread the true religion;
- he owned a sheet with the telephone number of XX, who is ready to become a martyr towards the end of 2017;
- he received documents, proclamations and images against the Westerners through Telegram and Amaq New Agency;
- he showed his destination to martyrdom looking for a bride, extinguishing all his debts and also acquiring the credits for paradise through the hasanat;
- he raised funds for the mosque Masijd Al Tawbah selling some fans and a house on E-bay;
- he receives greetings from friends to reach paradise soon;
- he kept in touch with groups that through the Balkan route and the Italian-Greek route intend to reach Turkey and then Syria;
- he transferred documents suitable to allow the subjects involved in these trades to access Turkey,
- he organized his trip identifying the participants and transferring to an accomplice (XX) details for the creation of false documents, reports to the latter a precise point in Istanbul asking how to see it from another location, Ay Yldiz;
- he was directed to Turkey receiving indications from XX and, finally, is roommate of XX who is the only one of the groups that departed on December 4, 2016 from Germany, to reach Isis in Syria.
They did not commit any attack, but it is clearly documented how the guy was at the service of the German Islamist cell and was about to organize a terrorist attack in Turkey.

Modus Operandi

People involved

• XX, congolese, 27 years, old resident in Germany;
• XX, moroccan, 22 years old, alleged contact with Anis Amri, the bomber of Berlin;
• XX, flat mate of Lutumba in Berlin, with his wife and his son, the only one of their group who reach Isis in Syria;
• XX, covers an important role, in addition to be the contact with XX;
• XX;
• XX;
• XX, mother of XX;
• XX, friend and contact of XX;
• XX, supervisor of Masjid At Tawbah mosque;
• XX, supervisor of Masjid At Tawbah mosque;
• XX, supervisor of Masjid At Tawbah mosque;
• XX, also known as a rapper with the name “Deso dogg” and a fighter with the names “XX” or “XX”;
• XX, also known as XX, blogger and instigator of XX;
• XX, director of the confraternity “the True Religion”, with XX and XX, also known as XX;

Criminal History

No past criminal history is documented for XX, while his friend XX has been reported by the German authorities as "foreign fighter" on 29th Sept. 2016.

Influential and/or vulnerable Groups

The 27-year-old Congolese boy was ready for martyrdom. To prove it there would be a flood of raving chats praising the jihad and then its contacts, even with XX who, according to German investigative sources, was in contact with XX.
All gravitating in the same area of Berlin, Moabit district, where in Perleberger Str. XX resided and the German police dismantled the German part of this Islamist cell, at the time when the anti-mafia prosecutor of Lecce was signing his decree of detention.